Foo jaan, there's only 10 countries in South America. To have 6 qualify, in my opinion is too many. Besides, they're not always as good as their showing this time around. Have a look at the previous 2 or 3 world cups. Other than Brazil and Argentina the rest of the South American contingent have been less than inspiring.
I think there's more of a case for reducing the number of teams back down to 24.
I would have:
Europe: 11
South America: 4
Asia: 3
Africa: 3
CONCACAF: 2
For the last place I'd have a tournament in the host country a year prior to the World Cup, with 2 groups of 4 from the following regions:
Oceania: 1
Asia: 4th & 5th Placed team (remember the first 3 qualified direct)
Africa: 4th & 5th Place team (first 3 have qualified directly)
CONCACAF: 3rd placed team (top 2 have already qualified)
South America: 5th Place team (top 4 have already qualified)
Europe: 12th placed team
You would separate the Europeans from the South Americans, have an Asian and an African in each group and one group gets the CONCACAF and the other the Oceania. Winner of this group plays Winner of that group for the last place in the final 24! 2nd through to fourth go home. Its important that only group winners advance, that way teams will go out and try to win from game one, rather than the cautious, defensive approach of trying not to lose. If you take second place out of the equation, then each game matters and everyone will try to win!
As you can see I've given this a lot of thought! Now if I can only get Sepp to agree!
