World Cup qualifying turnover is business as usual

International giants Italy and Netherlands won’t participate in the World Cup. Also missing from the tournament is rising power Chile. The United States had been a lock to participate for the better part of three decades, but they stumbled as well. With such high profile absences, many questions are being raised about the state of soccer globally. Is this a trend in the international version of the sport or is this an anomaly? Is this a story of minnows, like Iceland and Panama, catching the sharks? Or is this a story of the sharks, like Italy, losing a row of teeth? What exactly is going on here?

The reality is this kind of World Cup churn is business as usual. Netherlands isn’t going after…