NaBUru38

Argentina's Premios Olimpia will be given tonight. Here's the nominees: https://cpd.com.ar/2022/12/12/conoce-a-todos-los-nominados-de-los-premios-olimpia-2022/

South Africa defeated Ireland at the Men's Hockey Nations Cup final, and will play the 2023-24 Men's Pro League. India defeated Spain at the Women's Hockey Nations Cup final, and will play the 2023-24 Women's Pro League.

In football, the men's national team did not advance to the Fiffa World Cup round of 16. They drew South Korea 0-0, lost to Portugal 2-0, and defeated Ghana 2-0. Scoring just two goals in three matches is far from enough. The head coach put veterans as starters, rather than as substitutes. He was too conservative, and it didn't pay off.

In surf, Julián Schweizer won the Las Flores longboard event of the ALAS Tour. In judo, Henry Borges was bronze at the IBSA Judo World Championship in the 60 kg class. In athletics, the San Felipe y Santiago 10 km was won by Federico Bruno (28'37) and Mariana Borrelli (34'57). Meanwhile, Santiago Catrofe won the Granollers 10 km Cross in Spain with 29'49. In swimming, Nicole Frank got a new national short course record in 200 m breaststroke with 2'26.44 at the Melbourne World Cup. In futsal, the Peñarol won both the men's and women's national championship. it's the fourth and fifth consecutive title (so the latter is a Quinquenio).

In rugby XV, the Teros defeated Romania 21-16 and lost to Tonga 43-19. In rugby 7s, the Teros finished 10th at the Dubai Sevens (with wins over Spain and Great britain), and 7th at the Cape Town Sevens (with wins over Ireland and Japan). In basketball, the men's national team had two away losses to Mexico 80-60 and Puerto Rico 76-68. They have little changes of qualifying to the 2023 World Cup.

With no United States or Canada, I wouldn't be surprised if they expend it to 24 teams for 2027.

Not in field hockey

Men's world rankings: https://dataride.uci.ch/iframe/RankingDetails/1?disciplineId=10&groupId=1&momentId=153437&disciplineSeasonId=159&rankingTypeId=1&categoryId=22&raceTypeId=0 Women's world ranking: https://dataride.uci.ch/iframe/RankingDetails/32?disciplineId=10&groupId=2&momentId=153443&disciplineSeasonId=159&rankingTypeId=1&categoryId=23&raceTypeId=0

I think that the T20 format is still not easy enough to understand. Here's my T4x4 proposal: Each team bowls 4 sets of 4 overs each. After a team bowls a set, they change roles (like in baseball). A set ends prematurely if the bowling team has two outs.

This weekend: Scotland vs Argentina England vs New Zealand Ireland vs Australia Italy vs South Africa France vs Japan Wales vs Georgia French Barbarians vs Fiji Tonga vs Uruguay Romania vs Samoa Canada vs Namibia Hong Kong vs Kenya United States vs Portugal (winner qualifies to the 2023 World Cup)

The Uruguay Open (ATP Challenger) tennis tournament is underway. The Teros lost to Georgia 34-18. On Sunday they play Romania. The Teros 7s finished 13th at the Hong Kong Sevens, with wins over Great Britain (!), Kenya and Japan. The men's basketball national team will visit Mexico for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers. The match starts at 00:30 Uruguayan time... The Uruguayan Rugby Championship final is today between Trébol de Paysandú and Montevideo Cricket. The Uruguayan Superturismo has its final round at El Pinar. Meanwhile, the press is discussing that the Argentine football team chose to carry a Uruguayan yerba mate brand...

Uruguay visits Mexico tonight. The match starts at 00:30 Uruguayan time...

The Argentine government says that the total public budget for sports is 4 billion pesos (or US$ 25 million by the official exchange rate). https://www.telam.com.ar/notas/202210/607435-secretaria-deportes-enard--presupuesto-becas.html Of course this doesn't include other income by federations and clubs (like tickets, TV rights and sponsors), which I guess are minimal for most sports.

In equestrian, Marcelo Chirico won Spain's Golden league Grand Prix in jumping with two perfect rounds. In football, Defensor Sporting played the Copa Libertadores Femenina. They lost the three matches against Boca Juniors 2-0, Ferroviária 1-0, and Ñañas 4-3.

The Uruguayan parliament approved its 2023/2024 budget. The Olympic Committee, National Sports Secretary, and Uruguay Sports Foundation will get a combined $UY 100 million (US$ 2.5 million) each of the next two years.

The parliament approved its 2023/2024 budget. The Olympic Committee, National Sports Secretary, and Uruguay Sports Foundation will get a combined $UY 100 million (US$ 2.5 million) each of the next two years.

Playing a double round robin home and away was just too expensive. This format seems quite reasonable, though I'd rather see three simultaneous groups playing at the same week rather than spread out along the year.

There's a new tournament format to reduce travel. There will be 12 mini tournaments with 3 teams, played over a double round robin over a week. Therefore, every team will play every rival twice, as in previous years. India will host New Zealand and Spain from October 28 to November 6. Argentina will host Belgium and Germany on November 4-9. Argentina will host Britain and Netherlands on December 3-18. Australia will host Argentina and Spain from February 28 to March 5. Germany and Spain will host no rounds. Australia and New Zealand will host one round each. The other five countries will host two rounds.

No volleyball? That's absurd!

The Olympic volleyball tournament already had an African spot and it still does. That's not my complaint. My complaint is that all teams should have a chance of qualifying, even if it takes five rounds over six years.

I disagree. Let's keep with volleyball. Th 2022 Men's World Cup had 9 European teams in the top 16. The 2022 Women's World Cup had 4 European teams in the top 8. The World Rankings has 6 European men's teams and 7 European women's teams in the respective top 12. It would be perfectly reasonable that the the Olympic volleyball tournament have the host, the previous champion, 3 European teams, 2 Americas teams, 2 Asian teams and 1 African team, and 2 world repechage teams. This would guarantee that any of the 200+ countries can qualify. Instead, the Olympic qualifiers are restricted to the top 25 teams in the world rankings. That's absolutely ridiculous! Teams like Peru and Spain have literally no opportunity.

The Olympics volleyball tournament qualifying format was changed for the worst for 2024. The continental guarantee is based on world rankings, not continental qualifiers.

Hi folks! I have written quite a lot here complaining about bad qualifying systems for the Olympics and World Cups in different team sports. I wanted to make a centralized thread to discuss it. Of course, each team sport has its particularities. Rugby union matches require 5 days of rest, whereas a full 16-team rugby sevens tournament can be played in two days. Some sports have more worldwide parity (like football) while others have strongholds (like handball). And of course some tournaments have more teams than others. The first problem is using world rankings, which prevent upsets. For example, Brazil and Argentina are at the top of nearly every team sport in South America. When rankings are used, no team has a serious chance of qualifying instead of those two. On the contrary, continental tournaments should be mandatory. The worst offender is volleyball, whose Olympic tournaments will have 5 teams directly from the world rankings. A related second problem is using world qualifiers to award most if not all spots. This causes some problems: drawing can help some teams and punish others despite seeding, and some continents may get squeezed out. I'm fine with using world competitions (be it previous World Cups or Olympics, world qualifiers or world repechages) to set a few teams, but not most of them. For example, the Olympics field hockey and women's basketball feature no continental qualifiers at all. The gold standard is football, which features very few repechage spots. Another excellent example is rugby sevens. The 2024 Olympic men's basketball qualifying is complex and could be improved in many ways, but is not strictly bad.

The FIVB announced to expand both World Championships to 32 teams. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1129267/fivb-expands-volleyball-world-champs

The FIVB qualifying systems are simply awful.