Could Egypt spark a chage in the qualifying process?

Just like World Cup 2006 was played without one continental champion, the EURO 2004 winners Greece, in 2010 it will be Africa, who's champion won't be present at the competition deciding the best team in World. And with the tournament being played in Africa it might be a real kick in the teeth. Could it be time for FIFA to look into changing the format for qualifying to the finals?

In many sports, for example basketball, team's who'll play at the World Championships are decided by continental championships. This ensures that all of the World's present best teams will be involved. Though basketball and football are two completely different sports In basketball there are rarely shocks happening with smaller teams beating the favorites. Much thanks to the play being quicker and so quality gets shown in the end. You'd have to have a team with 10 players having the worst day of their night to lose to minnows. In football it's different. Shocks are quite common the more the time passes as smaller nations are starting to catch up with the bigger ones. And with tactics playing a massively bigger part in football than basketball, a smart game plan often leads to success to outsiders. It's good thing in a sense that it keeps the sport interesting and that's partly why football is the most popular sport in the World, but it also has it's down sides.

The fact that Egypt won't be at South Africa 2010 is a huge blow to the competition as a whole. Not only do you want the best teams to be part of the deciding of the champions of the World, after Angola 2010 I dare to say that Egypt are also the best team, in every sense of the word, in Africa and would've offered the most threat of the host continent catching out the big ones and maybe snatch the trophy.

It would be a good idea to at least think about the future of the competition, how to decide teams that will take part at the finals. Work out a system to ensure that every continent would be represented by it's best teams. For example, give the semi-finalist of all the bigger international competitions - EURO, Copa America and Africa Cup of Nations - an automatic spot for the World Cup finals. Plus also the champions of Asia, Oceania and the Gold Cup in Northern America. The team's could still take part of the qualifying process, much like hosts South Africa did this time around as the World Cup qualifying also acted as a qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations.

I believe it would also raise the quality of football being played at the biggest stage with all the best deciding the very best.