[Sagy]

This document, from FIFA, says that for the 1970 WC

Originally Posted by Page 3, 2nd paragraph

There were no seeds, instead the Committee in charge formed geographical 'sections' from which the four groups were drawn.

Does anyone knows (cares to guess) what were the "geographical sections".

The groups ended up:
Group A

1. USSR
2. Mexico
3. Belgium
4. El Salvador

Group B

1. Italy
2. Uruguay
3. Sweden
4. Israel

Group C

1. Brazil
2. England
3. Romania
4. Czechoslovakia

Group D

1. West Germany
2. Peru
3. Bulgaria
4. Morocco

The decision by "the Committee" seems strange to me since both 1962 and 1966 had seeds for group play drawing. While 1958 Didn't have seeds either, the geographical distribution made sense - UK teams, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, since each of these regions had 4 teams in the WC. There is no such nice distribution in this case, and we ended up with two CONCACAF teams in the same group.

Thanks in advance.

[Gregoriak]

The two seeded teams were Mexico and England. Mexico would head World Cup group 1 and England WC group 3.

The groups from which was drawn were:

Group 1 (the strongest representatives of Europe)

England
Germany
USSR
Italy

Group 2 (teams from Latin America)

Brazil
Mexico
Peru
Uruguay

Group 3 (Europe's "second class")

Sweden
Bulgaria
Belgium
Czechoslovakia

Group 4 (the "outsiders")

El Salvador
Morocco
Israel
Romania

[Sagy]

Thanks.

It looks like they did a decent job. All the "strongest representatives of Europe" advanced to the 1/4 final (as well as the Latin American teams). While none of the "second class" European teams advanced and 3 of the 4 "outsiders" finished 4th. Overall, it looks like by claiming "no seeds" they seeded the whole WC.

It looks like the biggest beneficiary was Mexico, they got the weakest team from Groups 1 and 4 and had a guaranteed avoidance of Brazil and Uruguay. The biggest losers were probably Czechoslovakia, they got the best team from groups 2 & 4 as well as a good England team from group 1. They might have been the best team ever to go 0:0:3 in the WC (not that this is saying much).