A Pilgrim's Travels

Seeding Frenzy

As the Final Draw for the World Cup is due at the end of this week, the eyes of the planet will be firmly set upon Cape Town, South Africa. The draw, which is due to commence at 5pm (UK Time) will be viewed by millions of individuals across the globe, as they will watch in earnest as South Africa steps out from the shadows and into the spotlight.

As a Brit, living in South Africa, I am pleased to report that this tournament promises to be an enormous success. The stadiums will be ready. The match-day experience will be phenomenal. The major airports are looking stunning. The roads, though currently in turmoil, are due to be completed in time. Perhaps most importantly, World Cup fever is setting in. This is Africa’s time!

South Africa have been very aware that from the moment that they beat Morocco and Egypt in the voting process to become the 2010 World Cup host nation, that a number of prominent individuals met the decision with scepticism. So many claimed that South Africa would not be able to host what is arguably the biggest sporting event on the face of the Earth. As a not so prominent individual, I am sorry to admit that I had the same perspective – giving the World Cup to South Africa was farcical. However, having lived near Johannesburg for approaching 3 years now, I am delighted to report that I honestly believe that this World Cup will be nothing short of spectacular.

There are still a number of unknowns regarding Friday's draw, for example, FIFA will decide during the week exactly how the seeding system will work. However, what is known is that it has taken 3600 hours of manpower to set up the Draw Hall and the event will be attended by many of the greats, both past and present, of the footballing World.

It is unclear exactly how FIFA will seed the teams for the tournament, and following the organisations peculiar decisions to seed the playoffs of the UEFA section of the draw and to deny the Republic of Ireland a re-match against Thierry Henry and his French counterparts, one can never know exactly what the governing body of World Football are about to decide. That said, here at ChampScore we have attempted to put together a model of how we believe the different pots will work.

What we know for certain is that 32 teams have qualified for the FIFA World Cup. These teams will be divided into 8 groups, containing 4 teams each. The teams in each group will play one match against every other team in the group, with the top 2 sides progressing to the 2nd Round where the tournament becomes a knock-out. Winners will continue to progress through the tournament to the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Final, with a 3rd place playoff for the losing Semi-Finalists.

We also know that there will be 8 seeded teams who will be kept apart from one another in the draw. South Africa as the host nation will be one of these teams. The other seven teams will be decided by FIFA in a meeting at Robben Island (the place where a certain Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for numerous years) on Wednesday 2nd December, 2009. It is probable that FIFA will take into account team’s performances at the previous 3 World Cups along with their ratings in the current FIFA Rankings. The other 3 pots are likely to be split according to geographical location.

One team will be selected from each pot, to compose each group. South Africa, as the host nation will be in Group A.

Having done some extensive research on the topic, I predict that the different pots will look as follow:

POT 1 (Seeded Nations)

South Africa (Host) (CAF)

Brazil (CONMEBOL)

Germany (UEFA)

Italy (UEFA)

Spain (UEFA)

England (UEFA)

France (UEFA)

Argentina (CONMEBOL)

POT 2 (Remaining European Nations)

Netherlands (UEFA)

Portugal (UEFA)

Switzerland (UEFA)

Greece (UEFA)
Serbia (UEFA)

Denmark (UEFA)

Slovakia (UEFA)

Slovenia (UEFA)

POT 3 (North American, Asian and Australasian Qualifiers)

Mexico (CONCACAF)

USA (CONCACAF)

South Korea (AFC)

Japan (AFC)

Australasia (AFC)

Honduras (CONCACAF)

New Zealand (OFC)

North Korea (AFC)

POT 4 (Remaining South American and African Qualifiers)

Paraguay (CONMEBOL)

Ghana (CAF)

Cameroon (CAF)

Ivory Coast (CAF)
Nigeria (CAF)

Uruguay (CONMEBOL)

Algeria (CAF)

Chile (CONMEBOL)

As an England fan, I am delighted that it looks almost certain that England will be among the seeded nations, but such is the state of World football that this will not guarantee a straight forward progression to the knock-out stages of the tournament. After Friday’s draw we will have plenty of months to speculate, before the spectacle of the World Footballing spectacular kicks off on June 11th at Soccer City.

Roll on Friday... I can’t wait!

A Pilgrim’s Travels