OVER the last few years football has added yet another cliché to it’s ranks: “there’s no easy games in international football anymore.” We think that’s baloney when minnows such as Andorra, Guam and the Cook Islands are knocking around in the international game. Today in 2006 another side was added to Fifa’s numbers when Serbia and Montenegro split to become two separate sides.

As a joint team, the last S&M action (no Max, not that sort) to be seen was at the 2006 World Cup where they were beaten 6-0 by a devastating Argentine performance on their way to finishing bottom of their group, failing to register a single point.

Despite this poor showing, the Football Associations of the two nations decided to split, as national pride proved to be more important than progression in major tournaments.

To their credit, the Montenegrins haven’t done too bad. After nine games they have beaten Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Norway as their Fifa ranking has gone up from 199 to 146 and are about to embark on qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in a group that features Italy and the Republic of Ireland.

If Montenegro wanted to go for glory though, we think they should’ve thrown their hat into the ring for the VIVA World Cup. This is a competition for states that are not members of Fifa, featuring a host of countries or regions that you’ve never heard of. This year’s tournament was won by Padania, which represents a district in northern Italy who beat Arameans Suryoye in the final. Told you no one had ever heard of them.



Now that Montenegro have secured their place in the international game, they’ll be delighted by Uefa who, in their infinite wisdom, voted to expand the European Championships to a 24-team format by 2016. This decision, aimed at milking yet more money out of the tournament, came at the end of one of the most enjoyable and high quality tournaments in years. An expanded version will see poor sides such as today’s protagonists clogging up the group stages and also devalue the qualifying process, as even England should be able to qualify without too much drama.

Right, rant over. Here’s a highlight reel of Montenegro’s leading light Simon Vukcevic doing his thing for Sporting and The Brave Falcons. Enjoy that, have a look at what we were up to last year here and join us tomorrow for something a bit less obscure.

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