UEFA WCQ Playoffs

[Sylar]

Were the playoffs always seeded/unseeded, or have UEFA/FIFA made it so, to ensure the likes of Ronaldo and Henry and their lacklusture national sides are there, at the expense of a smaller nation with less fans and commercial clout?

Disgusting if this is a recent decision by the governing bodies - no reason France and Portugal or any of the "higher seeded" nations should be separated just now and potentially exit the competition.

[Woody1985]

Were the playoffs always seeded/unseeded, or have UEFA/FIFA made it so, to ensure the likes of Ronaldo and Henry and their lacklusture national sides are there, at the expense of a smaller nation with less fans and commercial clout?

Disgusting if this is a recent decision by the governing bodies - no reason France and Portugal or any of the "higher seeded" nations should be separated just now and potentially exit the competition.

They just changed it so that it would be seeded for the points you've made.

Don't know about past history.

This should be fully documented prior to the WCQ commencing. Joke organisations.

[NOLA]

Eliteism! heard about the seeding while watching the ireland game, not very fair is it:bitchy:

[Sylar]

Eliteism! heard about the seeding while watching the ireland game, not very fair is it:bitchy:

At the end of the day (almost as bad as "in terms of"), these "bigger seeds" could have failed to even make the playoff stage, so why should they be given a reprieve once they get there?

I don't mean any disrespect to the "smaller seeds", as I guess any nation who made it into the playoffs are no mugs, but I don't think it's fair that these nations will be guarenteed a statistically lower ranked nation than their own capabilities.

[basehibby]

This is a disgusting decision - the composition of the groups are already seeded - the teams in the playoffs have earned the right to be there by coming 2nd in their groups and they should be treated equally at this stage.

IMO this decision is a demonstration of the utter lack of integrity at FIFA - it stinks to the high heavens of corruption and lacks even a pretention at fairness.
This deserves a full investigation by whatever police force has jurisdiction over the offices of FIFA (presumably the Swiss) as well as INTERPOL. The WC is a massive money spinner and it is fraudulent IMO to change the rules half way through for reasons obviously designed to line SOMEONE's pockets.

[waterford hibby]

They only changed it in the last two weeks it was always an open draw but they have now had a change of mind and decided to seed the teams,i just hope we get Greece as i dont think we have a chance with the others but stranger things have happened the draw is on next monday.

[TheEastTerrace]

Not surprised in the slightest. It's scandalous to change the goalposts at this stage, the rules for the playoffs were set before the qualifiers and should remain as much. However it's all about the money for FIFA and lining the pockets of it's leaders. Morally corrupt individuals are rife in the organisation.

For anyone who fancies reading about FIFA and in particular it's morally corrupt leaders, Andrew Jennings book here (http://transparencyinsport.org/book_review.html) is a fascinating and quite unbelievable read. Goes to show how greedy football executives have become.

[Makaveli]

"The eight teams will be seeded according to the world rankings to be released on 16 October"

So fear not if something goes wrong and the pots don't suit FIFA; they can always fiddle the rankings! :wink:

[1two]

They just changed it so that it would be seeded for the points you've made.

Don't know about past history.

This should be fully documented prior to the WCQ commencing. Joke organisations.

I can understand them basing it on the group points but not overall world rankings!

[rubber mal]

At the end of the day (almost as bad as "in terms of"), these "bigger seeds" could have failed to even make the playoff stage, so why should they be given a reprieve once they get there?

I don't mean any disrespect to the "smaller seeds", as I guess any nation who made it into the playoffs are no mugs, but I don't think it's fair that these nations will be guarenteed a statistically lower ranked nation than their own capabilities.

I totally agree.

1) the rules were set at the start of the competition, but have now been revised;
2) the groups were already seeded (so say a 3rd seeded nation who have overcome the odds to finish above the 2nd seeds are there on merit);
3) the so-called 'bigger' nations have had 10 games in which to amass enough points to win the group - if they haven't been able to do that, they don't deserve any preferential treatment in the play-offs.

If Scotland had (somehow) managed to make the play-offs I would be even more furious at this unashamedly self-serving decision.

[basehibby]

They only changed it in the last two weeks it was always an open draw but they have now had a change of mind and decided to seed the teams,i just hope we get Greece as i dont think we have a chance with the others but stranger things have happened the draw is on next monday.

Seriously - could/should someone (ie the non seeded nations) not take FIFA to court over this???

The WC finals is hardly a competition where the rules can be made up as they go along - the stakes are simply too high so surely there's a case to answer here - I think they'd back down if robustly challenged as this decision stinks to high heaven of corruption at the highest level.

[Thecat23]

It's just the same in the champions league.. It's seeded to make sure that the top teams go through. It's about time to forget seeding and just fire all teams in a bowl and pick them out and that's the group or play off team they have to play. Whether it's WC, EC, CL.. Then everyone has a fair crack.

[Woody1985]

It's just the same in the champions league.. It's seeded to make sure that the top teams go through. It's about time to forget seeding and just fire all teams in a bowl and pick them out and that's the group or play off team they have to play. Whether it's WC, EC, CL.. Then everyone has a fair crack.

I agree that they should do that.

Seeding, when used correctly, can protect the integrity of the competition. If you lost a lot of big teams at the early stage you could end up with a few diddy(ish) teams getting to the later stages when there are teams that would wipe the floor with them. That's what FIFA/UEFAs excuse will be anyway.

It would help shake things up in football and spread the massive wealth around.

I said on an earlier thread that we need to be careful with comps like the CL where there is so much money. One season in the group stage from a lowly rated league could cause them to dominate for years to come off the back of qualifying for the group stage after one good season.

Could a system be introduced that would see 10/15% of all revenues taken in from the CL spread across the domestic leagues to help keep the gap a little bit closer?