Europe, Features, Ian John, Leagues, Regions POSTS

France miss out as FIFA name seedings

Published by Ian John on December 2, 2009

FIFA have announced the four groups of eight seedings for Friday nights World Cup Finals draw in Cape Town South Africa. The four groupings of seeds have been announced as thus;

Seedings:
Pot 1 – South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain.

Pot 2 – Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Honduras, Mexico, USA, New Zealand

Pot 3 – Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

Pot 4 – Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland
In their infinite wisdom (!) FIFA have decreed that hosts South Africa should be a top seed and as such this has meant that France and Portugal have now been placed into Pot Four with the rest of the European qualifiers who were not seeded in pot one. Pot two consists of qualifiers from Oceania, Concacaf and Asia whilst Pot 3 consists of the African and South American teams not seeded in pot one.

FIFA have also decreed at the draw on Friday that no team, bar European teams, will face a team from their own confederation in the group stages. This means that Brazil and Argentina will be drawn against African opposition from Pot 3, while South Africa will draw one of the South American teams from Pot 3. The rest of the draw should be fairly standardised.

FIFA’s decision to base this on rankings and geographic position however throws up some anomalies and I think several countries can feel hard done to. Other than hosting the event, it is hard to justify why South Africa have a top pot spot (try and say that when you are drunk). Not when the likes of United States, France, Portugal, Serbia or even Paraguay could concievably lay claim to it based on past form. No wonder many countries want to host the World Cup finals if this is how things will progress.

Of course the way this has been organised means that there could be some ridiculously easy groups for teams, and some incredibly difficult ones too. None of the top seeded sides are going to want to draw the likes of Portugal or France from Pot four, or any of the stronger African and South American sides from pot 3, or Australia, United States or Japan from pot two. However it seems certain that we are going to end up with a very easy group for one team (South Africa most likely) and a very difficult team for another. The pessimist in me says England, but we had the group of death in Japan 2002, so perhaps it is someone elses turn now.

The best scenario for England I feel would be to draw New Zealand, Honduras or North Korea from pot two, Algeria or Paraguay from pot three and Slovakia or Switzerland from pot four. Whilst the nightmare scenario would be Mexico, USA or Japan from pot two, Ivory Coast, Ghana or Cameroon from pot 3 and France or Portugal from pot 4. Mexico, Ivory Coast, France and England would be a horrifically tough draw for us in particular.

South Africa meanwhile could end up with Honduras, Chile and Greece. Which on paper at least, looks markedly easier.

Whatever the draw will be, you will be able to see it live on Friday evening and then the real countdown to the World Cup can begin in earnest.

Image Courtesy of ***South African Tourism *** at flickr.com

Readers Rating: