iridescentt
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- Apr 6, 2009
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FIFA president Sepp Blatter has announced that the eight teams entering the UEFA World Cup 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.
"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 was quoted as saying after a FIFA executive committee meeting.
"There will be a separate draw to decide home and away," he added, speaking of where the first and second legs will be played.
Big teams such as France, Portugal, Russia 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.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Ireland and Norway will be a lot less happy with FIFA's decision though.
In response, this is what the Ireland coach and Shay Given had to say:
Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni has blasted FIFA's decision to seed the World Cup playoffs, describing it as "killing football", while goalkeeper Shay Given has called the move "disgusting".
On Saturday night Italy will face the Republic of Ireland in Dublin for a decisive World Cup qualifying match. The Azzurri could seal qualification with a draw, while for Ireland the most likely outcome is a second-place finish in the group.
This would force them to enter the play-offs, which could turn out to be dangerous for Trapattoni's team, as FIFA president Joseph Blatter has recently announced that the play-offs will be seeded according to the various teams' current FIFA rankings.
This new system would prevent big teams like Germany, France, and Russia meeting each other, while a team like Ireland would almost certainly meet a prestigious national side.
"This solution is a bit like killing football," said Trapattoni, as quoted by Goal.com Italia. "A few years ago the big European clubs thought about creating a 'SuperLeague', but they abandoned the idea because they saw the risks of this. This is a similar solution.
"Every national team has the same rights, and making a seeded draw goes against this principle. But of course, the business of the big teams controls everything."
Meanwhile, goalkeeper Shay Given said, "It's incredible that FIFA has taken a decision like this precisely when the bigger teams are struggling to qualify. It's actually disgusting."
Ireland have a five-point lead over third-placed Bulgaria in Group 8, but they're four points behind leaders Italy, making a first-place finish unlikely with just two games to go.
To be honest, I can see where the Irish lads are coming from. This is just a horrible decision. From a lower nations point of view (Eg. Australia, Irelad, Bosnia, Sweden, etc.) I'd be extremely pissed off. Its just favouring the top dog in the FIFA rankings. Sure in some way the 'top dogs' deserve to have that sort of scapegoat route since they earned their Top 10 or so spot, but their just dogging other the other nations.