Simple. The powers-that-be have allowed us to get stuck in a vicious circle of perceived failure. Here's the circle - Wales fail to qualify for a major competition…Wales finish third or below in their qualifying group…Wales lost to very high class opposition, and could only manage a draw away at unfancied eastern bloc countries…Wales are given a ridiculously low world ranking, down with the Cayman Islands and Togo in the 100s…Wales are seeded/banded in the third or fourth set of European teams for the draw for the next qualifiers…Wales come out of the draw in a group with two big guns and another fair team, plus a couple of also-rans…Wales finish third or fourth again and fail to qualify…it goes on and on, round and round…meanwhile, our results indicate that some of the toughest teams in Europe find us a very hard nut to crack.

In friendlies, such is our reputation amongst the high-rankers, Wales are given the cream of world football to play against, as we're such a good match for them. During this time, Middle Eastern countries, Caribbean countries, and African countries play each other relentlessly, give the minnows of their continent a thrashing, and are given an unfairly inflated world ranking. Wales aren't the only victims of the system. Look at Australia, for example. Admittedly their route to winning the Australasia group isn't the toughest (remember those cricket scores they racked up last year against Fiji or whoever). But, having won their group, why do they have to play off against the fifth- ranked South Americans? Why are countries who finish second in their European groups forced to play-off against each other, when the likes of Saudi Arabia can stroll through and then proceed to waste everyone's time? 

The only reason is political correctness - to have 32 countries from right across the globe. Mr Blatter needs the vote of some of them perhaps? They aren't the best 32 in the world, though, and that's my quarrel. I would currently put Wales in the Top 32, no question, so somewhere along the line, we're being had. Africa seems to get its share of the plaudits, but while Senegal gave us some excitement, Cameroon and Nigeria were as dull as dishwater. Tunisia and Saudi were worse. These countries should be playing off against the likes of Wales to get their passport to the finals. Until Wales can break this cycle and qualify ahead of the big guns they always find themselves in with due to the seeding system, we're always going to be up against it.

While we know we'd have performed well in the place of quite a few of the disappointing teams out in the Far East, we're never going to be given the chance. The challenge must rest with the Welsh FA to work on getting a more realistic ranking. I'm all for a multi-cultural, worldwide World Cup, but not if it means Wales, Scotland, Holland, Norway etc slip away, while Cameroon, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia continue to stroll through by thrashing the Congo, Ethiopia, United Arab Emirates, and other no-hopers who only serve to inflate the reputations of these teams.

Let's have more realistic World Rankings, but first let's show them how wrong they are by having a cracking European Championships qualifying run. We're nowhere near as bad as everyone thinks.