


Then you need to go around the world and take all the minnow countries out of there groups and do the same? as it's not only in Europe it happens
Actually, other continents already do this.
In Asia, the worst teams compete in the first round, the middling teams come in for the 2nd round, and the five top seeded teams (Japan, S Korea, Australia, N Korea, Bahrain) get a bye to the 3rd round.
In Africa, the top 28 ranked teams get a bye to the 2nd round and the other teams have playoffs for the remaining places.
In CONCACAF the worst 10 teams play in the first round, most of the other teams join in the 2nd round, and the top 6 ranked teams (USA, Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Cuba) get a bye to the third round.
In OFC (Oceania) the worst 4 teams (Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, American Samoa) play a round robin and the winner joins the other seven teams in Round Two.
CONMEBOL (South America) is the only other federation that doesn't have any sort of pre-qualifying. But then, there are no real minnow in CONMEBOL, in fact all its teams have played in World Cups in my lifetime with the exception of Venezuela, although they are improving (currently ranked 5th in the 2014 qualification).
So really, UEFA stands out as the only federation which puts minnow teams straight into final qualification with multiple games against the big boys. When you are interrupting the biggest leagues in the world for a fortnight to watch a bunch of part-timers thrashed 8-0, I agree this does seem somewhat baffling.