Playing San Marino is useless - Owen slams European qualifiers

Football pundit Michael Owen has questioned the quality of the teams in the European qualifiers, stating that the games are becoming 'pointless.' The former Liverpool striker made these comments in the aftermath of England's 10-0 thrashing of San Marino on Monday night. 

The 41-year-old pundit took to his personal Twitter page to berate the quality of the international matches and called for restructuring, stating that he is 'rapidly falling out of love' with watching the matches.

"Rapidly falling out of love with watching international football barring the big tournaments. I think a lot of people feel the same way. Half of these games are absolutely pointless. A restructure is needed," Owen tweeted after England's big win.

The ITV pundit also believes that teams like San Marino - who are mostly made up of part-timers - should not be playing elite teams like England. He implied that games such as Monday's were effectively over even before they started with the opposing side having little to nothing chance of winning. 

Owen said in respect to San Marino: "I feel sorry for them. They are well short on every aspect of the game. They shouldn't be on the same pitch as England. What can the manager say before the game? 'Come on lads, we can do it?' To get beaten every game must be heartbreaking for them."

England booked their place at the 2022 Qatar World Cup on Monday night, scoring six first-half goals with Harry Kane bagging four of those. San Marino conceded 46 goals in 10 matches in the World Cup qualifying series, losing all 10 games and scoring only one goal all through. Five other teams - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Gibraltar, and Lichtenstein - all failed to win any game throughout the World Cup qualifying series.