There are teams in Europe that will almost never make it to any tournament…all they do is make the numbers and thus increase the number of games competitive countries have to play.
In Asia and Africa, they already have different stages of qualification, although it’s a different setup to what I think Europe needs.
My take is the countries with the lowest FIFA ratings should play a two-legged knockout fixture (or a one-off could be a better idea) and then proceed to the main qualifying round.
What’s your take on that?
That’s not what I mean. Take the FA cup preliminaries for instance where the teams at the lower leagues go through playoffs, but the difference is any of the weak teams that get through the playoffs will book a spot in the qualifying table of four teams