FIFA World Cup Seedings Announced

2010 World Cup

The seeds for Friday’s draw for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa have been announced.

FIFA’s World Cup organising committee used the world rankings from October to determine which pots countries would be drawn from.

The decision to use world rankings alone breaks with Fifa’s previous formulas when they used a combination of rankings with performances in previous final tournaments.

Rankings alone have not been used in the past, but Fifa relaunched the system with much fanfare a couple of years ago, boasting the new-look rankings were much more indicative of a country’s current position in world football.

Geographical criteria will also be used for the draw, meaning that, with the exception of European teams, no two countries from the same federation can be drawn together.

So, hosts South Africa will not face one of the African teams from Pot 3, while Argentina or Brazil will not meet a fellow South American side.

If you ask me it sounds like every other football related competition – a stitch up to allow all the big guns to progress. Nothing with FIFA or UEFA is ever straight forward.

Why use Octobers rankings? Did the November stats not suit them?

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

Posted on December 2, 2009 | Filed Under Football