What's going on with the World Cup Qualifying Draw then ?

Razzler · 11-20-2007, 06:59 PM

FIFA site has it for 25th but heard 23rd mentioned alot. So little info about it. First result from a search here has it for 23rd. Heard Friday mentioned, maybe that's the date McClaren is or is not flying out of England ?

I am sure in previous tournaments the top seeds are announced a little while before. Are they just going with top rankings in FIFA ? I thought they've been mixing that in with previous tournament record, etc. Dont know if they've confirmed it one way or the other.

I heard Euros draw will take into account previous records in tournament and quals (i think Dutch are sitting as top seed in 4th group alongside Austria, Swiss and Greece).

Quote:

With 53 teams in Europe competing for 13 spots in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, UEFA boss Michel Platini announced that changes have been made to the qualifying format. This go around there will be eight qualifying groups with six teams each and one group with five teams. In the past, there have been fewer groups with more teams in each group.

The nine group winners will automatically advance to the World Cup, while the best eight runners-up will face home-and-away play-off matches for the remaining four spots. The draw for European groups will be held in Durban in November and qualifying will begin next summer after the Euro 2008 tournament

Looks like play-offs again, one group of 5 teams as well.

Quote:

As the host country for the 2010 World Cup, South Africa already has its spot in the competition booked. That isn’t stopping the country from taking part in World Cup qualifying, however.

Breaking with tradition, South Africa will be competing with the other African countries during World Cup qualifications. They will be the first host country in 70 years to participate in their own qualifying competition. The reason? The games are also being used to determine the field for the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola.

In the end this is probably a good thing for South Africa as it will mean more games leading up to the World Cup and less travel involved with the preparations.

South Africa playing too for African Nations Qualifying reasons.

I heard 3pm GMT as a start time, should know by the end of the Prem footie on Sunday then :thup: or maybe not

Hairy Coo · 11-20-2007, 07:05 PM

The seeds ( and subsequent pots ) are decided by FIFA ranking only this time iirc

miketheheadlesschicken · 11-20-2007, 07:07 PM

The new FIFA rankings, which are to be used for seedings, are out on Friday and the draw is on Sunday.

Razzler · 11-20-2007, 07:08 PM

So, are tomorrow's round of European games going to be taken into account then ? Obviously going to change.

If not, are England seeded ? Poor show on the info coming out of FIFA. Their site has a link to a stream of the draw but not much else apart from a city report on Durban

ericcantona7 · 11-20-2007, 07:09 PM

shouldn't have African nations every two years ffs.

Anyway one of the runners up not getting a playoff place is harsh, esp as it'll probably be a team in one of the toughest groups. I think I'd rather have 8 groups, 5 of 7, with 3 of 6. Top team qualifies, the runners up play off, and then maybe a four team mini-tournament of the losing playoff teams for the last place. Or just give it to Andorra for the laughs.

Razzler · 11-20-2007, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by miketheheadlesschicken:
The new FIFA rankings, which are to be used for seedings, are out on Friday and the draw is on Sunday.

pre-empted me on the rankings issue but Saturday is 24th

Helarxe · 11-20-2007, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Razzler:
So, are tomorrow's round of European games going to be taken into account then ? Obviously going to change.

If not, are England seeded ? Poor show on the info coming out of FIFA. Their site has a link to a stream of the draw but not much else apart from a city report on Durban

I think they postponed a couple of days exactly to include the final matchday's results.

Razzler · 11-20-2007, 07:09 PM

... and i dont know why i mentioned that as you clearly said Sunday !

Razzler · 11-20-2007, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Anyway one of the runners up not getting a playoff place is harsh, esp

I'd guess that would be the 5 team group ? Maybe only group winners getting through in that one. In which case, i hope that isnt ours. Unless the missing side is a 2nd seed

Helarxe · 11-20-2007, 07:15 PM

Quote:

The European Zone of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification will see 53 teams competing for 13 places. The qualification process will most likely start in mid 2008, after UEFA Euro 2008. The qualification process will also mark the first official competition for Montenegro.

Seeding

After initially proposing to use a similar system to recent World Cup and European Championship qualification (based on results across the previous two European qualification cycles), the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 27 September 2007 at its meeting in Istanbul that seeding for the qualifiers would be based on FIFA World Rankings, in accordance with the FIFA World Cup regulations (which note that where teams are ranked on "performance" criteria, the FIFA World Rankings must be used).

The FIFA World Ranking used for seeding will be the most recent at the time of the preliminary draw, namely the November edition. Initially scheduled for 21 November, the release date was moved to 23 November to include the final match days of Euro 2008 qualification.

Format

Eight groups of six teams and one group of five will contest the European qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The nine group-winners will qualify directly, while the highest ranked eight of the nine second-placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the rank of second-placed teams, only results against those finishing 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th will be counted.