The9 Posted 9 December, 2009 Share Posted 9 December, 2009 I'm bored, so here's my prediction: GROUP 1 Netherlands Australia Ghana Denmark GROUP 2 Argentina Japan Chile Slovenia GROUP 3 Spain Mexico Nigeria France GROUP 4 South Africa USA Cameroon Greece GROUP 5 Germany South Korea Algeria Portugal GROUP 6 England Honduras Paraguay Serbia GROUP 7 Brazil North Korea Ivory Coast Slovakia GROUP 8 Italy New Zealand Uruguay Switzerland The highlighted teams are the ones I think will qualify, and i'm fairly sure it will be a Spain vs Italy final. Um, you missed the memo from every World Cup in the last 26 years having the host (or one of the co-hosts) in Group A Position 1 then ? That was known 3 years ago when they published the match schedule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bungle Posted 10 December, 2009 Share Posted 10 December, 2009 Um, you missed the memo from every World Cup in the last 26 years having the host (or one of the co-hosts) in Group A Position 1 then ? That was known 3 years ago when they published the match schedule. He's also got a group with 2 African teams in, which I don't believe is possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krissyboy31 Posted 10 December, 2009 Share Posted 10 December, 2009 He's also got a group with 2 African teams in, which I don't believe is possible. That's true but I don't think many of us knew that FIFA were going to rig the draw to that extent. What about 2 European teams in the same draw? Apparently that doesn't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bungle Posted 10 December, 2009 Share Posted 10 December, 2009 That's true but I don't think many of us knew that FIFA were going to rig the draw to that extent. What about 2 European teams in the same draw? Apparently that doesn't matter. Er, the rules for this were known well in advance. You have to be able to have two European teams in a group, as there are more than 8 European teams in the World Cup. If you suggest there be only 8 European teams, then go for it. I am all ears. Other continents only have 1 per group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krissyboy31 Posted 10 December, 2009 Share Posted 10 December, 2009 Er, the rules for this were known well in advance. You have to be able to have two European teams in a group, as there are more than 8 European teams in the World Cup. If you suggest there be only 8 European teams, then go for it. I am all ears. Other continents only have 1 per group. Not denying that there should be more than 1 European team in some of the groups, my point was that it was a rigged draw and should have been straight Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, Pot 4 draw, regardless of where the teams were from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The9 Posted 10 December, 2009 Share Posted 10 December, 2009 (edited) Not denying that there should be more than 1 European team in some of the groups, my point was that it was a rigged draw and should have been straight Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3, Pot 4 draw, regardless of where the teams were from. It's not "rigged", it's structured to ensure each group has a geographical mix of teams and that each group has at least one decent side in it (or the hosts). That ensures that the bigger stadia get the bigger matches (featuring A1, B1, C1 etc) because the logisitics of organising ticketing, accommodation and transport for 32 teams and all of their fans (plus the knockout stages) in only 6 months is hard enough without having Brazil or South Africa play 3 matches in the 40,000 seater grounds whilst (say) New Zealand v Honduras gets drawn to be in a 90,000 capacity stadium. It would also be patently rubbish if a European team qualified for the World Cup and found itself playing 3 other European teams in the group, and the same for all the other Confederations except Oceania and North/Central America, who don't have enough representatives to fill a group. Also, A1 is the hosts in order to ensure that their matches are scheduled for the biggest grounds, as there will be by far more of their fans around than anyone else's. If you really want to complain about something, start on the nature of the seedings, which has been based on entirely different criteria for the last 3 tournaments and is never decided before the competition qualifying ends, never mind before it begins - or UEFA seeding the Playoffs entirely unfairly to try and get the best teams through when they were all second placed in their group and should have been treated equally. Or Henry's handball. The structure of the draw, in making it a truly worldwide tournament, is about the one thing they do get right. Edited 10 December, 2009 by The9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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