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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
anyway i don't see the "contempt for europe". there are just too many european countries these days and they have to fit somewhere. e.g., croatia and bosnia used to be yugoslavia, so that's a twofer.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
i don't understand why. in the end there was going to be one random leftover in pot 4 and that was going to fit a hole left by pot 2. no? same fucking thing.
i really don't get it.
is pot 2 rated lower than pot 4?
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edit: i don't really get the fuckin pot X.
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There have been 13 places for Europe for quite a while. The "problem" is that only 4 of them are seeded this time, meaning the remaining 9 unseeded Euro teams don't fit in a single pot.
This happened before at the 2006 World Cup and back then the lowest ranked country (Serbia and Montenegro) was placed in pot 2 which has "weaker" sides than the Euro pot.
For 2014, it was expected that France - being the lowest ranked European team at the cut-off point of October 2013 - would end up in pot 2.... because that's what happened in 2006 too, right?
Since you can't draw teams from the same pot you are in, being in pot 2 is a massive disadvantage. It means you can't draw "easy" teams like Algeria or Ecuador from pot 2, but you can draw teams like England, Italy, Holland or Portugal from pot 4 (teams you would avoid if you are in pot 4).
It also means you cannot draw "easy" seeded teams like Belgium and Switzerland from pot 1 because you automatically get a South American team to avoid having 3 teams from Europe in the same group. That's why the Guardian qualified Colombia as "England getting lucky", because in pot 2 the only other available options would be Brazil, Argentina or Uruguay.
In pot 2, France would be certain to get Brazil/Argentina/Uruguay/Colombia plus have a 50% chance of drawing Netherlands/Italy/Portugal/England.
In pot 4, the chance of drawing a group of death is much much smaller, because then France could also draw Belgium/Switzerland from the seeded teams, plus they'd only have a 12.5% chance of drawing the European country from pot 2 (which in itself could be any of the European countries).
FIFA claims the draw is based on geographical location and the October 2013 FIFA rankings. But what they do now means:
1. It means that being ranked 8th (Netherlands), 9th (Italy) or 21st (France) doesn't make a difference for the draw.
2. It means that being the first two European countries to qualify (Netherlands and Italy) or the last country to qualify (France scraping through the play-offs) doesn't make a difference.
Now, while that might seem a bit silly, I'd absolutely have no problem with it if it was decided well before the qualification started. But what makes this such an inexcusable dick move is that it's been decided 3 days before the draw!
Everything about the World Cup is carefully planned, discussed and written down in a set of rules. From the brand labels on the drinks sold at the stadium to the colour of the stadium seats, etc etc etc... but not the rules of the draw? Yeah right.
Also, FIFA stated that this decision was made after talks with the continental confederations... meaning also UEFA... meaning Platini. What a cunt indeed.