FIFA Gets It Wrong, Again
So, today FIFA announced that Germany, Brazil, Italy, France, Argentina, Spain, Mexico and England were named as the top eight seeds for next year's World Cup finals in Germany. Lets recap the last world cup in Japan/South Korea and see if these seedings were actually justified, before I tell you how I think FIFA should seed countries:
1)Brazil, enough said, deserves a top seed, plus with their travelling (sometimes almost topless)fans, well now you know why Sepp Blatter is constantly holding binoculars at matches
2)Germany, not since the Berlin Wall have Germans seen anything fall so quickly as their chances to win and the true ranking of where they stand in the pantheon of great teams. FIFA has to give them a top seed since they are the host country.
3)Italy, hate to admit it, do not deserve it, what I remember from this World Cup is terrible calls against the Italians, holy water being used on the sidelines and a team that underachieved, again.
4)France, great performance...what you scored one goal in three games?
5)Argentina, my early favorite to contend for the World Cup in 2006 along with Brazil, they didn't do anything in 2002, oh yeah, we got to see Veron in the national jersey for the last time...thanks for the memories, another team like Italy that totally had within its grasp the Cup with their team, but leave to Coach Bielsa to screw this one up.
6)Spain, seriously, Spain, because besides criticizing the Italians for complaining about the referees and then doing the same thing after they lost, is all I remember the Spaniards doing in 2002.
7)Mexico, can anyone even name three players off the 2002 team?
8)England, hold on, I am still laughing, seriously, what have you have done since 1966? I'm waiting.
So, what is the point, the point is simple, FIFA needs to update their ranking system, start from scratch and use the two-year qualifying cycles for the world cup to be a true barometer of the nations ranking. Forget friendlies, preferential treatment(see ticket sales and traveling fans) and forget this outdated methodology of using the countries performance in the previous two or three world cups, keep it relevant and make the 'dominant' countries have to earn these top seeds again. Based on your ten matches(more in other qualifying regions) in your two-year European window is how you should be ranked. This could possibly throw the game in chaos, but also challenge the smaller nations to thrive for these lofty seeds while insuring that the larger European nations no longer coast into the world cup.
Azzurri Dreams
1)Brazil, enough said, deserves a top seed, plus with their travelling (sometimes almost topless)fans, well now you know why Sepp Blatter is constantly holding binoculars at matches
2)Germany, not since the Berlin Wall have Germans seen anything fall so quickly as their chances to win and the true ranking of where they stand in the pantheon of great teams. FIFA has to give them a top seed since they are the host country.
3)Italy, hate to admit it, do not deserve it, what I remember from this World Cup is terrible calls against the Italians, holy water being used on the sidelines and a team that underachieved, again.
4)France, great performance...what you scored one goal in three games?
5)Argentina, my early favorite to contend for the World Cup in 2006 along with Brazil, they didn't do anything in 2002, oh yeah, we got to see Veron in the national jersey for the last time...thanks for the memories, another team like Italy that totally had within its grasp the Cup with their team, but leave to Coach Bielsa to screw this one up.
6)Spain, seriously, Spain, because besides criticizing the Italians for complaining about the referees and then doing the same thing after they lost, is all I remember the Spaniards doing in 2002.
7)Mexico, can anyone even name three players off the 2002 team?
8)England, hold on, I am still laughing, seriously, what have you have done since 1966? I'm waiting.
So, what is the point, the point is simple, FIFA needs to update their ranking system, start from scratch and use the two-year qualifying cycles for the world cup to be a true barometer of the nations ranking. Forget friendlies, preferential treatment(see ticket sales and traveling fans) and forget this outdated methodology of using the countries performance in the previous two or three world cups, keep it relevant and make the 'dominant' countries have to earn these top seeds again. Based on your ten matches(more in other qualifying regions) in your two-year European window is how you should be ranked. This could possibly throw the game in chaos, but also challenge the smaller nations to thrive for these lofty seeds while insuring that the larger European nations no longer coast into the world cup.
Azzurri Dreams
posted by E. Bearzot at 12:44 PM
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