Australia-
Blatter: Announcement
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has announced that the eight teams entering the European qualifying play-offs for World Cup 2010 will be seeded.
The eight best runner-ups from Europe's nine groups will be divided into two sets, based on the Fifa rankings system, and each will face a team from the opposing side of the draw.
The decision comes as a blow to Republic of Ireland, who currently occupy second place in Group 8, as they face the prospect of meeting the likes of France, Croatia or Germany in the two-legged tie.
"We have decided on seeding the teams into two groups of four, taking the Fifa world rankings into account, with the top four in one pot and the others in another pot," Blatter confirmed after a Fifa executive committee meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
"There will be a separate draw to decide home and away," he added, speaking of where the first and second legs will be played.
With the Fifa world ranking system due for a reshuffle on October 16th, the draw for the play-offs will follow just three days later on October 19th.
The timing of the announcement is likely to draw criticism from national team bosses expecting to be second seeds as the system largely favours the higher-ranked nations who are struggling to qualify.
France, Portugal and Czech Republic are all in danger of missing out on the finals but will be boosted by the seeding system, which could offer an escape route should they all finish second place in their respective groups.
In Group 4 meanwhile, Germany and Russia are battling it out for first and second place and one of which will find themselves in the play-offs, likely to be in the top seed bracket.
Heavyweights England, Spain and Holland have already secured their place at South Africa next summer, which will provide some comfort for the lower nations expecting to make the play-offs.
The final group games of the European qualifying campaign will take place on 10th and 14th of October and will determine who will enter the draw before Fifa's new rankings will split the eight in two.
Comments (13)
Chris Carolan (Tottenham Hotspur fan) says...
Disgrace. All teams were already seeded for the Group stages. Ireland have been put in a group with Bulgaria & Italy who are seeded higher than them in the world and yet we have given a fantastic account of ourselves only for Fifa to ruin it for us.......We are currently unbeaten and now might not be given the fair chance to qualify??? If we got Germany or Portugal(if they make it) in an open draw it would excite the irish Fans to beat someone like those fantastic teams but to be forced to play against them instead of maybe one of the other "second seeds" is a total disgrace. I'm irish but even if i wasn't i would still hope that Ireland beat Italy & Montenegro and Qualify as group winners and then they will have have 5 or 6 of the "top seeds" forced into a playoff.
Posted 12:56 6th October 2009
Tom Davies (Everton fan) says...
That's disgracefull. No wonder lower ranked countries and smaller countries don't progress in football. In my eyes and I'm sure in many other people's eyes aswell, this is corruption. Fifa seem only to be interested in nations who can bring more money to them. Ireland have gre and grew in football in recent years and if they fail to qualify for the world cup after such hard work it will be a massive blow. Convenient that this has been decided when Germany, Russia, France and Portugal could all miss out on 1st places.
Posted 02:25 6th October 2009
Brian Boylan (Ipswich Town fan) says...
Nothing surprises me any more with FIFA. Sepp blatter should have stood down a long time ago. You can't keep moving the goalposts for the smaller nations, one of which I hail from, despite their hardest efforts. Its no coincidence that the teams that look like they may not get through have mammoth populations and would provide great TV ratings. The rich get richer as the poor get poorer. I just hope Robbie Keane can be our Robbie Hood then!
Posted 19:35 5th October 2009
Paul B (Manchester United fan) says...
This isn't shocking news seeing how bad those top teams are doing, they may as well just give them their ticket to South Africa and saved them the hassle of playing in the qualifiers, but none of the smaller teams wont go down without a fight and I'd love it if France and Portugal got put out and the teams in the second seed all go through.
Posted 14:28 5th October 2009
Carl Read (Manchester United fan) says...
Why do FIFA interfere with a system that already worked?This just favours the larger nations and means the days of the so called 'groups of death' that potentially make the formality of early group games interesting. It means that the smaller nations that have qualified will struggle more as they are guaranteed a top seed within their group. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.
Posted 08:56 1st October 2009
James Martin (Liverpool fan) says...
I think this is disgraceful. I have attended all of the Ireland group games with the premise that the play off draw would be unseeded. If FIFA wanted to have a seeding draw, they should have announced it before now. It favours the 'bigger nations' , its undemoncratic and it feels like a big boys club were other nations don't get a fair opportunity.
Posted 01:11 1st October 2009
Bob Holdsworth (Liverpool fan) says...
Not surprised at Fifa. The timing of the decision is appalling. if they were going to be seeded they should have made the decision at the start to avoid giving false hope to the lesser nations. You have to question their morals but then they want the big guns on show next year. Really unfair on the teams who have worked so hard to get within touching distance of the finals, only yo see it probably pass them by. Shame on u fifa.
Posted 00:55 1st October 2009
Dirk Mc (Liverpool fan) says...
absolute farce!! tweaking the system to help out the larger countries who have slipped up. Separating the large countries makes it even tougher for the small nations to qualify despite good performances to get the 2nd place!! DISGRACE!!!
Posted 23:17 30th September 2009
Ryan Mac (Tottenham Hotspur fan) says...
This is typical of fifa. make sure the big teams get in to generate more money for them. uefa doid it with the champions league. i believe blatter and platini will ruin football.
Posted 22:10 30th September 2009
Colm Shanahan (Manchester United fan) says...
Blatant corruption from FIFA yet again. I can't wait until Blatter and Platini leave their posts from FIFA and UEFA respectably. They keep coming out with bizarre decisions, all seemingly against clubs and nations on those two little islands off of mainland Europe.
Posted 20:52 30th September 2009
Ronnie Letts (Manchester United fan) says...
An absolutely disgraceful decision. One that makes a mockery of FIFA as an 'organisation' and wholly discriminates against the so-called lower nations who are giving their upmost to qualify for the World Cup Finals. The 'suits' at the top of the FIFA organisation have gone against everything the game stands for. To have made this decision before the qualifiers had even kicked off so many months ago would have been still been a hard pill to swallow but to have the audacity to do it now is a blatent ploy to protect the likes of France and Portugal who have failed to live up to their high expectations. FIFA could not be making it harder for the likes of the Republic of Ireland and Scotland among so many others to not only climb the FIFA rankings but to qualify for the big competitions. The likes of Greece winning the Euro Championships and Ireland making the World Cup 1990 Quarter-Finals may soon be a thing of the past as the fat cats at the top look to protect the bigger nations.
Posted 20:39 30th September 2009
Greg Meehan (Manchester United fan) says...
Ireland are going to beat Italy in Dublin, top the group and not have to worry about this nonsense.
Posted 20:13 30th September 2009
Shaun Paterson (Celtic fan) says...
That seems to me that fifa are just making it easier for big teams to get in and harder for smaller teams to get in to the world cup which i think kinda sucks shouldnt take the rankings into account
Posted 20:03 30th September 2009