Comments on Football rankings: 2010 World Cup seeding update (20 November 2009)

No, that way there would be two pots with special ...

2009-12-02T12:42:09.765+02:00

No, that way there would be two pots with special conditions for the draw - the one with the African teams and the one with South American teams. This way there's only one.

"Glad they put Africa and S.America together....

2009-12-02T12:39:12.613+02:00

"Glad they put Africa and S.America together. Far less complicated for the draw."

How come?

Wouldn't Africa and N.America in one pot be equally uncomplicated?

Yep, 100% based on October rankings. Looks like y...

2009-12-02T12:07:29.726+02:00

Yep, 100% based on October rankings.

Looks like your site's only going to get busier in the future, Edgar! :o)

Glad they put Africa and S.America together. Far less complicated for the draw.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/media/ne...

2009-12-02T11:59:03.063+02:00

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/media/newsid=1142262.html#fifa+organising+committee+approves+final+draw+procedure

Looks like the seeding is simply on the October rankings...

South Africa
Brazil
Spain
The Netherlands
Italy
Germany
Argentina
England

I don't think FIFA will consider FIFA rankings...

2009-12-01T20:28:15.946+02:00

I don't think FIFA will consider FIFA rankings only either and nor should they....the nations that consistently 'step up' at the World Cup no matter how they did in qualifying or other games should be rewarded in some way for that......Germany comes to mind....some might remember they got to the World Cup Final in 2002 after only qualifying for that World Cup via a PLAYOFF against

I have to disagree with last post(anonymous). It i...

2009-12-01T18:49:21.863+02:00

I have to disagree with last post(anonymous). It is not realistic to seed teams with the preliminaries as the criteria. In europe´s case that would mean 10 matches that counts. And with that logic Paraguay and Chile would be more qualified than Argentina from Conmebol! I think the FIFA ranking is a good criteria. And so i think the last World Cup is! Both together is good anough for me. Many

To seed Portugal and/or France would be the bigges...

2009-12-01T16:37:37.252+02:00

To seed Portugal and/or France would be the biggest mistake since they are qualified due to play-off. In both cases Denmark and Serbia deserve seedings more since they top the groups with the firstmentioned in question.

If FIFA seeds either 2 they might as well give them a 3 goal-advance in each game, so they have an actual chance to win the trophy

@ Edgar That's nice. I've started to look...

2009-11-27T19:48:08.815+02:00

@ Edgar

That's nice. I've started to look at some old posts in your website and found understandable texts besides written in an odd language. I thought it could be Romanian. It's easy to forget those latins that were at the other side of the "Iron Curtain".

My wife and I travelled close to Romania in our honeymoon, but unfortunately the country was not

The non-Big-4 runners-up were: a) CZE - '34/&...

2009-11-27T17:12:00.375+02:00

The non-Big-4 runners-up were:

a) CZE - '34/'62;
b) HUN - '38/'54;
c) SWE - '58;
d) NED - '74/'78;
e) FRA - 2006.

*CZE was seeded in 1938;
*SWE didn't play in 1962;
*NED was seeded in 1978 (there were 5 seeded teams and 4 groups);
* There were WC without seeded teams.

It's true that France

That's what I wanted to say - it would be the ...

2009-11-27T16:11:21.321+02:00

That's what I wanted to say - it would be the first time when last edition's losing finalists are not seeded.

Who knows what FIFA will do in the end...

@ Edgar, Besides the losing finalists that didn...

2009-11-27T16:09:17.870+02:00

@ Edgar, Besides the losing finalists that didn't qualify, I don't think that there are any that weren't seeded in the next edition.

France did qualify :)

2009-11-27T16:05:53.185+02:00

France did qualify :)

@ Edgar, Czechoslovakia didn't qualify for 196...

2009-11-27T16:01:05.844+02:00

@ Edgar, Czechoslovakia didn't qualify for 1966, Hungary didn't qualify for 1950, Netherlands didn't qualify for 1982.

I don`t know what it`s up with avoiding groups of ...

2009-11-27T16:00:02.897+02:00

I don`t know what it`s up with avoiding groups of death. Groups of Death are what we are looking for at group stages, as they bring fresh air to group phase and everyone has something to debate about.

When was the last time the losing finalists were n...

2009-11-27T15:04:04.890+02:00

When was the last time the losing finalists were not seeded in the next edition?

@ John Clear as mud, I made a mistake when listing...

2009-11-27T14:29:25.151+02:00

@ John
Clear as mud, I made a mistake when listing the seeded teams Portugal shouldn't be in there. Yeah, I guess FIFA won't use the same formula for 2010.

@ Ari Kaleva
Interesting post.

@Sancho Yes, I'm Romanian.

2009-11-27T08:55:34.543+02:00

@Sancho

Yes, I'm Romanian.

Hello all, I would use procedure like this one: ...

2009-11-26T17:31:40.021+02:00

Hello all,

I would use procedure like this one:

WC Draw Ranking should be calculated depending on 3 last World Cups, 98-06.

Points will be given as follows:

#1 8 points
#2 6 points
#3 5 points
#4 4 points
#5-8 3 points
#9-16 2 points
#17-32 1 point

WC 1998's weight is 16.667 %, WC 2002's 33.333 % and WC

Wow... that would be a sweet draw for the USA. He...

2009-11-26T06:36:42.927+02:00

Wow... that would be a sweet draw for the USA. Here's hoping it comes to pass!!!

@ John Well, it's already proved that it won&...

2009-11-25T21:10:36.423+02:00

@ John

Well, it's already proved that it won't be easy to take France out without damaging the seeding system to death. That said, FIFA has two exits:

a) let France in Pot 1, besides the handball, saving the system and the formula (perhaps, changing it a bit, without modifying the result); or

b) let France out, using only the ranking to define the seeded

@Sancho That almost kicks France out, but not qui...

2009-11-25T19:54:59.351+02:00

@Sancho

That almost kicks France out, but not quite. If you increase your 4:2:1 to 5:2:1, then you have struck gold (or maybe that's orange!), but could we really call that 'simple'?

I still think the simplest way to kick France out and get Netherlands in would be to use 1:0:0, i.e., one FIFA ranking only, and leave the World Cup performance piece the same.

FIFA will try just to "improve" the form...

2009-11-25T18:03:38.213+02:00

FIFA will try just to "improve" the formula for defining the seeding teams.

The question that the FIFA's Edgars are trying to answer seems to be:

What would be the most simple way to change the 2006 formula, using Oct.2009 rankings, kicking France out of Pot 1?

In exemple, what would be the result, if the formula were:

{[(Oct.&

@John No, you're not wrong. France would be i...

2009-11-25T08:54:05.175+02:00
@John

No, you're not wrong. France would be in, with England out.

764dak's figures are a bit different because he has France above Portugal in December 2008.

@764dak correction: I see now you correctly cred...

2009-11-25T06:36:11.418+02:00
@764dak

correction: I see now you correctly credited France with 31pts for 2006 (but your ranking numbers for France are slightly off versus Edgars' numbers).

Your last post includes 9 seeded teams. See Edgar's post at the top for the 7 teams (+ South Africa) that would make it under the 2006 formula.....but as you will read through the other posts, there are very

@764dak You are mistaken, sir. Your first post t...

2009-11-25T04:13:49.293+02:00
@764dak

You are mistaken, sir.

Your first post tried to replicate what Edgar kindly already did for us, which is what happens if they use the same 2006 seeding formula for 2010 purposes (albeit with an error for France - note they came 2nd in 2006, not 1st). This 2006 seeding formula was based on an equal weighting between FIFA rankings and past World Cup performance.