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Bwin’s Burning Issue: Will England qualify for 2014 World Cup?

With the SPL already underway and just days to go before the start of the domestic season in England, bwin has teamed up with Vital Football to give fans the chance to air their views on football’s biggest issues.

Every Monday, we’ll be inviting readers to offer their take on what we consider to be the biggest talking point of the previous weekend.



First off, the limited domestic programme gives us a chance to concentrate on the international scene.

The 2012 European Championship might be England’s immediate focus, but attention turned to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil over the weekend when the draw was made for the qualification stage.

All the talk before the draw was whether England would be put in the same group as France, with the second-seed status of Laurent Blanc’s men making them the biggest potential barriers to automatic qualification.

With this hurdle avoided, England look to have a good chance of making it to South America for the tournament in three years’ time.

In Group H with Ukraine, Poland, Montenegro, Moldova and San Marino, England are 1/2 favourites to top the standings at the end of the qualification campaign.

Ukraine are second-favourites to finish as group winners with odds of 4/1, while Poland and Montenegro are priced at 6/1 and 8/1 respectively.

However, Montenegro are proving a difficult team for England to shake off in the Euro 2012 qualification process, and Fabio Capello’s side were defeated 1-0 the last time they visited Ukraine.

Then there is the doomed qualification campaign for Euro 2008 to consider, highlighting how making it to a major tournament should never be taken for granted where England are concerned.

To make matters even more interesting, England will have a new manager for the World Cup cycle, with Capello due to step down after Euro 2012.

With this in mind, Bwin`s Burning Issue is:

Will England qualify for the 2014 World Cup?

Not only that; we were also interested to know:

Do you care?

Do you feel extra pride when a player from your team plays for England?

Who is your all time favourite England player…?

It’s over to you?

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