The new FIFA rankings are out for November. Top 7 teams seeded (South Africa automatically seeded as hosts) Code: Total WC FIFA 1 Brazil 61.3 29.3 32 2 Italy 58.3 27.3 31 3 Germany 57.3 30.3 27 4 England 54.3 26.3 28 5 France 52.3 23.3 29 6 Argentina 51.0 21.0 30 7 Portugal 47.3 22.3 25 -------------------------------- 8 Spain 46.3 25.3 21 9 Netherlands 40.7 14.7 26 10 Sweden 38.3 19.3 19 11 Ukraine 36.7 16.7 20 12 Mexico 32.3 19.3 13 13 Switzerland 31.3 15.3 16 14 Czech Republic 29.0 6.0 23 15 Croatia 27.0 9.0 18 16 Ecuador 27.0 17.0 10 17 Nigeria 26.7 2.7 24 18 Cameroon 25.0 3.0 22 19 USA 22.7 13.7 9 20 Cote d'Ivoire 21.0 6.0 15 21 Korea Republic 17.7 15.7 2 22 Australia 17.3 11.3 6 23 Greece 17.0 0.0 17 24 Japan 16.3 13.3 3 25 Romania 14.0 0.0 14 26 Uruguay 13.7 2.7 11 27 Iran 12.3 5.3 7 28 Egypt 12.0 0.0 12 29 Colombia 8.0 0.0 8 30 Uzbekistan 5.0 0.0 5 31 Cuba 4.0 0.0 4 32 South Africa 4.0 3.0 1 Egypt/Romania/Colombia/Uzbekistan/Cuba replaced Ghana/Turkey/Paraguay/Qatar/Honduras. Portugal gets a seed at the expense of Spain. Much of the following was originally written by eldiablito and scaryice, so credit to them. Also thanks to eldiablito for doing this last time for many months and scaryice for doing this in the last months. FAQ Why is this list different than FIFA's Coca-Cola rankings? Because Fifa's Coca-Cola rankings are only part of the complex seeding formula. What is the seeding formula used for? The seeding formula is used to determine which 8 countries receive seeds. Those 8 teams are heads of each of the 8 groups in the world cup. By being seeded, they get the luxury of not having to play another seeded team until the knockout stage. What is the seeding formula exactly? The complex formula takes into account the performance at the last 2 world cups and the FIFA rankings. Part A: World Cup performance = (2002*1+2006*2)/3 Part B: FIFA Ranking = (12/2007 rank+12/2008 rank+11/2009 rank)/3 Part A + Part B = world cup seeding formula For the purposes of this showing you the current standings in this thread, the current FIFA rank will count as all three years. How is the world cup performance determined? 0 points are awarded if the country failed to qualify that year. The 16 teams that didn't make it out of the group stage are ranked (Points, GD, GF). The bottom 8 get 8 points each. The top 8 get 9 points each. All the countries that advanced to the knockout stage are placed from 1st place to 16th place. 1st place (champs) receives 32 points. 2nd place receives 31 points. 3rd place receives 30 points. etc. All the way to 16th place which receives 17 points. How are the points for FIFA ranking awarded? Similarly to above. First, all 32 teams that qualify are ranked by their FIFA ranking. The best is given 32 points. The worst 1 point. If two or more teams have the same FIFA ranking, the points are not divided among them. Instead, the one shown first in the FIFA rankings gets the most points and so on. How do you pick which 32 countries to run the seeding formula? I pick the countries based on their FIFA ranking by federation. For example, the best 14 UEFA teams by FIFA ranking since 14 UEFA teams will qualify. This is done primarily for two reasons. It keeps the criteria objective and it runs the formula with the worst-case scenario in mind. 14-UEFA 4.5-CONMEBOL 3.5-CONCACAF 4.5-AFC 5.0-CAF 0.5-OFC The FIFA Executive Commitee meeting will take place on 5/6 December 2006 and one of the topics should be the spot allocations for South Africa 2010 Are you sure that FIFA will use this seeding formula? No, it might change slightly. For 2006 they only used the previous 2 World Cups instead of 3 like before. But they've been using the same basic formula since 1994. Previous Editions July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006
Pot 1: Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, South Africa Pot 2: Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine Pot 3: Australia, Cuba, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, USA, Uzbekistan Pot 4: Cameroon, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Egypt, Nigeria, Uruguay Special pot: Romania Group A: South Africa, Greece, Korea Republic, Ecuador Group B: Argentina, Ukraine, Cuba, Romania Group C: France, Spain, Australia, Nigeria Group D: Germany, Netherlands, USA, Colombia Group E: Portugal, Czech Republic, Iran, Cameroon Group F: Italy, Sweden, Japan, Uruguay Group G: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cote d'Ivoire Group H: England, Switzerland, Uzbekistan, Egypt
Lol, on that. Nice groups there. It looks tough for everyone except the first and last groups. Ecuador and England look like they would be in great shape.
It seems I was right Original press release -> link The agenda of this meeting includes: ... 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa: competition dates, slots for the final competition, preliminary competitions in the confederations and preliminary draw in 2007 ... Note to editors : A press conference will be held following the FIFA Executive Committee meeting in the FIFA Auditorium on Wednesday, 6 December 2006 at 15:00. No accreditation is required.
So, Pot 4 would have 5 African teams and 3 South American teams, who wouldn't be able to be drawn against South Africa, or Brazil/Argentina (respectively). I don't suppose they'll be able to manage to organise a reasonable method for the draw to deal with that (despite it being trivially easy); instead it will be the same old "pick a team out of the pot, and if necessary keep moving it to the next group to the right until it fits" travesty that they usually end up with. So, can we have England in Group B again, please?