Translated from Panama FA website : The Organizing Committee of the FIFA World Cup has formally ratified the format of competition proposed by the Confederations, in this case CONCACAF, for qualifying for the World Cup South Africa 2010. The competition will begin in February of 2008 and will end in November of 2009. The draw will be held in Durban (South Africa) on 25 November 2007, where the rival of Panama for the second qualifying round of CONCACAF will be known. The 35 participating member associations of CONCACAF are seeded on the basis of the FIFA rankings of May 2007, where PANAMA is number 5 on the list behind Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica and Honduras. According to the competition format, the first round will consist of the 23 participating member associations in positions 13 to 35. The round consists of 11 home-and-away series of matches, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines have a bye. The winners and St. Vincent and the Grenadines advance to the second round. For the second round, the 11 first round winners and St. Vincent and the Grenadines will be matched against the remaining 12 participating member associations, among them PANAMA. The 24 teams will match up in 12 home-and-away series, where the winners will advance to the Third Round. The 12 winners will be grouped in the Third Round in three (3) groups of four (4) teams that will play home and away round-robin against everyone. The group winners and runners-up advance to the Fourth Round or Hexagonal Final, where the six teams will form a group that will play home and away round-robin against everyone. The best three (3) teams of the Hexagonal Final qualify for the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010. The team in the fourth position will play a home-and-away playoff with the fifth-place team in the South American zone. http://www.fepafut.com/noticiasdetail.asp?id=939 The 12 teams with a bye to the 2nd round are not the 12 semifinal round teams from last cycle, but the top 12 teams in the May FIFA rankings: 1. Mexico 2. USA 3. Costa Rica 4. Honduras 5. Panama 6. T&T 7. Jamaica 8. Cuba 9. Haiti 10. Guatemala 11. Canada 12. Guyana #13 St. Vincent & the G's also gets a bye but must play one of the top 12 teams.
Guyana has improved their FIFA Ranking so much that they get a bye in the first round where they lost 8:1 on aggregate last time. Also see https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=542540&page=7
I always find that using rankings that are six months out of date* provides the best indication of current strength - don't you - especially when you have had your CONTINENTAL TOURNAMENT FINALS in the interim. Why not use March rankings, then Canada wouldn't be seeded (as 13th - and they are 4th now!!). J * - by the time of the draw.
I understand where you're coming from and your point is valid. However there are a number of good reasons to use retroactive rankings to decide the seeding pots, not the least of which is to avoid a 'points race' in between the time of the announcement and the time of the draw. You should also bear in mind that most of these formats seem to have been drawn up in may and were ratified on the first of june by FIFA. The only reason we're only now hearing about it is because of FIFA's trademark lack of transparency and penchant for dramatism
Anybody know the seeding procedure for the semi-final round? Will it be based on the May 2007 FIFA rankings as well? If so, that sucks.
If the current rankings were used, the same 12 teams would be seeded, and St. Vincent would still be 13th. http://fifa.com/worldfootball/ranki...fullranking.html#confederation=23914&rank=159
ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- The United States was among 13 nations that will receive a first-round bye in soccer's North and Central American and Caribbean qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. FIFA, soccer's governing body, said Friday it based the decision on its rankings from May, when the United States was second in the region, a position it also holds in the latest rankings. Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Canada, Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines also received first-round byes. Twenty-two nations will be slotted into home-and-home pairings during the World Cup qualifying draw on Nov. 25 in Durban, South Africa. The 11 winners and St. Vincent will drawn against the top 12 seeds in the second round, which likely will be in June. The 12 second-round winners advance to the semifinals, which will retain the same format from 2006 qualifying, with three groups of four. The top two teams in each semifinal group advance to the six-nation regional finals. The top three teams in the finals qualify for the 32-nation field, and the No. 4 team meets the fifth-place team from South American in a home-and-home playoff for another berth. http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=ap-worldcup-us&prov=ap&type=lgns
Here's who I figured went up and down from the 2006 WCQ seeding system if they go by FIFA rankings. I posted this over in the FIFA forum. Guatemala - from Pot C to Pot B Panama - from Pot C to Pot B Honduras - from Pot B to Pot C Jamaica - from Pot B to Pot C Cuba - from Pot E to Pot C Haiti - from Pot E to Pot C Guyana - from Pot F to Pot C St. Vincent & Grenadines - from Pot C to Pot D El Salvador - from Pot C to Pot E Barbados - from Pot C to Pot E Nicaragua - from Pot D to Pot E Bahamas - from Pot F to Pot E Antigua & Barbuda - from Pot F to Pot E Belize - from Pot D to Pot F Dominica - from Pot E to Pot F Netherlands Antilles - from Pot E to Pot F Puerto Rico - from not competing to Pot F El Sal and St. Vincent are hurt the most by this. Let me state that I will not be surprised in the slightest if we get to the draw in November and it has reverted to the previous format or if El Salvador takes Guyana's seeded spot with no explanation. And I'll LMAO if St. Vincent still qualifies for the semifinal round. They're undefeated all-time in WCQ knockout rounds over four tournaments, 8-0. Awesome. We have our draw format. I'm now waiting for Peter Goldstein's rant on it over at planetworldcup. He's always a great read and is the most knowledgeable person covering CONCACAF on the whole internet.
I sent Peter a private message on this board asking him if he is going to write about CONCACAF or any other confederations' World Cup Qualifying format and draw, but he hasn't responded. I'm considering e-mailing him. I won't post his e-mail address here but you can get it from http://www.planetworldcup.com/GUESTS/peter20070627.html
Hmm, yes that's true (although the formats were ratified on 27 June at the EXCO meeting). Anyway, it might be worth mentioning how little we actually know at this point, because we DON'T know (from the FIFA website) what will be drawn in Durban. Will it just be the 11 first round ties, will it be the 1st and 2nd round ties, will it (like last time) also be the semi-final groups? If they go that far, how will they be ensuring the groups are "even" and so on? If they only draw some of the above, will they use more "up-to-date" FIFA ranks when they get around to drawing the semi groups? It's almost like they don't care that some people (not me of course, no way at all, definitely not) hang on every shred of information they release. This seem only to be the case for CONCACAF - for all others we know what they will be drawing already (UEFA, CAF, AFC are groups - first stage in the case of CAF and AFC but the preliminaries are before the draw - CONMEBOL and OFC don't need draws). J
A simple way to try to do the semifinal draw before any qualifiers have been played and try to balance the semifinal groups would be to put the best seed in Group 1 and the 12th seed in Group 12 and the same for every first round group. Then make one semifinal group have the winners of 1, 6, 7, and 12; another group would have the winners of 2, 5, 8, and 11; and another group would have the winners of 3, 4, 9, and 10 (with the sums being 26 for each). There's a lot of soccer left to be played and drawn this year.
Based on the May rankings gives us: Mexico T&T Jamaica Guyana USA Panama Cuba Canada Costa Rica Honduras Haiti Guatemala
Based on the newest rankings (August) Mexico T&T Panama SVG USA Honduras Cuba Jamaica Canada Costa Rica Haiti Guatemala
Cuba lost to Barbados on penalties for the 2002 WCQ. Barbados went on to the semifinal stage and even beat Costa Rica 2-1 in their first game. So they have the pride of stating they once led a CONCACAF semifinal group after one round. Barbados 1-0-0 3pts 2:1 +1 USA 0-0-1 1pt 1:1 0 Guatemala 0-0-1 1pt 1:1 0 Costa Rica 0-1-0 0pts 1:2 -1
^^ would be a close game but most likely both teams will win at home If anything we have the edge now
This is my point. Not only do Jamaica still have pedigree in Concacaf, but they happen to be one of our toughest rivals. No matter what team they bring out, Jamaica always plays us hard. But of course, all we're gonna hear is the "I can't believe Mexico got three caribbean islands (sic)" chorus
Dates for the Qualifiers: First Round: February 6th, 2008 Second Round: June 11 and 15th, 2008 Semifinal Round: August 20, 2008 Final Round: February 11, 2009 4th place Playoff: November 14, 2009 http://www.laprensahn.com/ediciones/2007/10/03/eliminatorias_iniciarian_el_6_de_febrero