blatter secures votes and re-election in a number of ways. such as giving the smaller nations referees world cup matches that they obviously can't handle. another way is to give the smaller regions more qualifying spots. the cook islands vote counts as 1 vote, the exact same as brazil's does.
FIFA changed the publishing date for the November rankings, from 21 (Wednesday) to 23, to include the EURO 2008 last qualifying matches.
With 6 points against Bulgaria (away) and Albania (at home), Romania will be in the first pot at the expense of England or Croatia -> link.
In case anyone else is interested in a compereson of the good old system and the new system with two games to go. Code: New UEFA system Old UEFA Sytem Pot World Team Pts Team Pts/game Change Ranking Oct-07 (Due to new system) -------------------------------Pot 1---------------------------------- 3 Italy 1387 Italy 2.300 = 4 France 1271 Netherlands 2.500 = 5 Germany 1245 Croatia 2.500 = 6 Spain 1226 [COLOR="Red"]Sweden 2.350 -1[/COLOR] 7 Netherlands 1207 [COLOR="Red"]Romania 2.318 -1[/COLOR][COLOR="Green"]*[/COLOR] 8 Portugal 1203 Germany 2.300 = 9 Czech Rep 1174 England 2.286 = 10 Croatia 1155 Czech Rep 2.273 = 11 England 1137 Portugal 2.208 = -------------------------------Pot 2----------------------------------- 12 Romania 1086 Poland 2.182 = 13 Scotland 1049 [COLOR="Blue"]France 2.143 +1[/COLOR] 14 Greece 1034 [COLOR="Blue"]Spain 2.100 +1[/COLOR] 16 Russia 960 Greece 2.091 = 20 Poland 837 Russia 2.000 = 21 Norway 830 Serbia 1.909 = 22 Ukraine 828 Norway 1.900 = 24 Sweden 821 Ukraine 1.864 = 27 Serbia 786 [COLOR="Red"]Turkey 1.864 -1[/COLOR] -------------------------------Pot 3----------------------------------- 28 Turkey 771 Switzerland 1.800 = 29 Denmark 769 Denmark 1.773 = 32 Ireland 722 [COLOR="Blue"]Scotland 1.762 +1[/COLOR] 34 Bulgaria 717 Israel 1.750 = 36 N. Ireland 716 Bulgaria 1.700 = 37 Israel 707 [COLOR="Red"]Slovakia 1.636 -1[/COLOR] 41 Switzerland 676 Ireland 1.571 = 44 Finland 667 [COLOR="Red"]Austria 1.500 -2[/COLOR] 48 Hungary 630 Finland 1.500 = -------------------------------Pot 4----------------------------------- 48 Bosnia 630 Bosnia 1.381 =[COLOR="Green"]@[/COLOR] 50 Slovakia 600 [COLOR="Blue"]Hungary 1.300 +1[/COLOR] 54 Belgium 577 [COLOR="Blue"]N. Ireland 1.300 +1[/COLOR] 57 Cyprus 556 Belgium 1.227 = 58 Wales 521 [COLOR="Red"]Slovenia 1.095 -1[/COLOR] 61 Moldova 497 [COLOR="Red"]Latvia 1.091 -1[/COLOR] 70 Albania 455 Albania 1.091 = 71 Georgia 447 Wales 1.050 = 75 Macedonia 423 [COLOR="Red"]Lithuania 1.000 -1[/COLOR] -------------------------------Pot 5----------------------------------- 76 Slovenia 422 [COLOR="Red"]Estonia 0.913 -1[/COLOR] 79 Iceland 410 [COLOR="Blue"]Macedonia 0.909 +1[/COLOR] 82 Armenia 400 [COLOR="Blue"]Cyprus 0.900 +1[/COLOR] 86 Latvia 386 [COLOR="Blue"]Georgia 0.870 +1[/COLOR] 88 Austria 382 Belarus 0.850 = 90 Lithuania 380 Armenia 0.727 = 94 Belarus 358 [COLOR="Blue"]Moldova 0.667 +1[/COLOR] 116 Azerbaijan 279 Liechtenstein 0.652 = 119 Liechtenstein 262 Iceland 0.571 = -------------------------------Pot 6----------------------------------- 122 Kazakhstan 249 Malta 0.400 = 130 Estonia 211 [COLOR="Blue"]Azerbaijan 0.400 +1[/COLOR] 137 Malta 196 Kazakhstan 0.333 = 150 Luxembourg 132 Andorra 0.227 = 171 Montenegro 65 Luxembourg 0.130 = 173 Andorra 61 Faroe Islands 0.048 = 194 Faroe Islands 12 Montenegro 0.000 = 196 San Marino 6 San Marino 0.000 = * Romania is likely to be in pot 1 under the new system since Croatia still has to play in England. @ Depending on the tie breaker under the new system Bosnia might move up in place of Hungary. The big losers are: Sweden - from a near certain 1 to a 2 (maybe 3 if things go wrong). Austria - from a 3 to a 5 (no one will want them as a pot 5 team). Estonia - from the brink of pot 4 to pot 6. The big winners are: France and Spain (especially if either fails to qualify to Euro 2008, what a surprise ). ... ... Scotland - from pot 3 to 2 and might end up in 1 with some breaks. The new System might give us: Germany England Denmark Slovakia Austria ------
According to my calculations, you should gain around 55 points. P.S. I don't always get the same point totals as FIFA.
Ok, let me get this straight. Croatia has the best record in qualifying for Euro '08 and WC '06, and is the only team that's undefeated in that time, and if they lose to England (which they probably will since they will have clinched top spot in the group on Saturday against Macedonia), they will drop to #10 in Europe and be a #2 seed. That is beyond ridiculous. Romania will pass them even if they lose to Bulgaria? And Romania lost 3 qualifiers for WC 2006. Right now Croatia is ahead of England, but if Croatia wins against Macedonia and England ties their exhibition match, and then Croatia tie their match in England, England will pass them as well. Insane. So Croatia could be the only true #1 seed in Euro 2008 (Austria, Switzerland are hosts and Greece as defending champions are the other top seeds of the 4 groups), but they aren't one of the top 9 seeds for World Cup qualifying. What an absolute joke. FIFA should be abolished.
Croatia lost many points last year, they got an average of just 361. Other top ten teams got between 500 and 900. http://de.fifa.com/mm/document/worl...nfifacocacolaworldranking_october07_27059.pdf
That's the problem with FIFA. Friendlies should not count in rankings. They're exhibition games. Who cares? Half the starters play in these games. For a team who has not lost a competitive game to another European team in 3 and a half years to possibly be ranked 10th in Europe is utterly ridiculous, I don't care what the rankings say.
In this case, the problem is not with the FIFA Ranking taking friendlies into account (this is a legitimate thing for a ranking system with few official games per year). The problem is that UEFA switched from a solid system (points per game over the last two qualifiers) to the FIFA ranking system which is inferior.
In case anyone still cares. This is how the race for the pots would look under the old system Code: [B]Team Gm Left Ave Min Max[/B] [COLOR="Blue"]----------------- Pot 1 -------------[/COLOR] Italy 21 1 2.33 2.23 2.36 Netherlands 23 1 2.52 2.42 2.54 Croatia 21 1 2.38 2.27 2.41 Germany 11 1 2.36 2.17 2.42 Czech Rep 23 1 2.30 2.21 2.33 England 21 1 2.29 2.18 2.32 Portugal 25 1 2.24 2.15 2.27 Sweden 21 1 2.24 2.14 2.27 Poland 23 1 2.22 2.13 2.25 [COLOR="Blue"]----------------- Pot 2 -------------[/COLOR] Romania 23 1 2.22 2.13 2.25 France 21 1 2.14 2.05 2.18 Spain 21 1 2.14 2.05 2.18 Greece 23 1 2.13 2.04 2.17 Russia 23 1 1.91 1.83 1.96 Turkey 23 1 1.91 1.83 1.96 Serbia 22 2 1.91 1.75 2.00 Norway 21 1 1.81 1.73 1.86 Israel 21 1 1.81 1.73 1.86 [COLOR="Blue"]----------------- Pot 3 -------------[/COLOR] Switzerland 10 0 1.80 1.80 1.80 Ukraine 23 1 1.78 1.71 1.83 Bulgaria 21 1 1.76 1.68 1.82 Denmark 23 1 1.70 1.63 1.75 Scotland 22 0 1.68 1.68 1.68 Slovakia 23 1 1.57 1.50 1.63 Finland 25 1 1.56 1.50 1.62 Ireland 22 0 1.55 1.55 1.55 Austria 10 0 1.50 1.50 1.50 [COLOR="Blue"]----------------- Pot 4 -------------[/COLOR] Bosnia 21 1 1.38 1.32 1.45 N. Ireland 21 1 1.38 1.32 1.45 Hungary 21 1 1.24 1.18 1.32 Latvia 23 1 1.17 1.13 1.25 Belgium 23 1 1.17 1.13 1.25 Slovenia 21 1 1.10 1.05 1.18 Lithuania 21 1 1.10 1.05 1.18 Albania 23 1 1.09 1.04 1.17 Wales 21 1 1.05 1.00 1.14 [COLOR="Blue"]----------------- Pot 5 -------------[/COLOR] Estonia 24 0 1.00 1.00 1.00 FYR Macedonia 23 1 1.00 0.96 1.08 Georgia 23 1 0.87 0.83 0.96 Belarus 21 1 0.86 0.82 0.95 Cyprus 21 1 0.86 0.82 0.95 Moldova 22 0 0.77 0.77 0.77 Armenia 23 1 0.70 0.67 0.79 Liechtenstein 24 0 0.63 0.63 0.63 Iceland 21 1 0.57 0.55 0.68 [COLOR="Blue"]----------------- Pot 6 -------------[/COLOR] Malta 21 1 0.38 0.36 0.50 Azerbaijan 21 1 0.38 0.36 0.50 Kazakhstan 24 2 0.33 0.31 0.54 Andorra 23 1 0.22 0.21 0.33 Luxembourg 24 0 0.13 0.13 0.13 Faroe Islands 21 1 0.05 0.05 0.18 San Marino 21 1 0.00 0.00 0.14 Montenegro
It's important, because that's how the Euro 2008 pots will be decided. If we assume Portugal, Turkey, Sweden, and England as qualifiers, then the pots currently look like this: 1: Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Netherlands 2: Italy, Croatia, Germany, Czech 3: England, Portugal, Sweden, Poland 4: Romania, France, Spain, Turkey Here's a mock draw: A: Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Romania B: Austria, Croatia, England, Turkey C: Greece, Czech, Sweden, Spain D: Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France