Qatar 2022

I'm wondering if they're going to eventually have to play some of the qualifiers as mini-tournaments on one or a neutral site... kind of like they did the Champions League. They are actually doing this for the Asian Champions League. And this is how they used to do the old Wordl Cup qualifiers in Asia. Final and semifinal groups just a single round-robin in a place like Doha or Malaysia (ironically where they are doing the AFC Champions League). Or... could we actually be looking at Qatar 2023 maybe? I hope not

 

What if local laws required the player to spend 14 days in quarantine when they return before being able to rejoin their club? Losing star players for 2 weeks could be worse for business.

 

In many cases they do. However, players were granted a free pass by European governments so its a non issue. Governments feel as often as the players are tested no need to go in quarantine mode for two weeks. A normal citizen isn't being tested as frequently as players.

 

That Government ruling makes very little sense, but okay...

 

It occurred to me that if Asian, African and CONCACAF teams do not resume activity until next March, that will mean they had a 16-month lay-off between Novebmber 2019 and March 2021.

I wonder whether that will have a negative effect on their teams' development and chances in Qatar.

 

Probably, but its the same for everybody.

 

I'd say "No" because some are playing friendlies this week and I would expect more to play friendlies next month. Then there is also the extra FIFA window in Jan 2022. Plus, presumably still Sept and Oct 2022 to schedule more friendlies. I don't think matches played 3 years before a WC have any impact on the tournament at all.

 

Don't know about the other South American teams but Colombia was able to get 25 players in Camp today and all of them tested Negative for the Virus.

 

I've noticed some have arranged friendlies. Seems weird a friendly can be played accross different confederations, but not qualifiers within a confederation.

 

A crazy rumor I am hearing is something I was suggesting months ago.

Colombia may be looking into playing Uruguay in Miami 's NFL stadium with fans being allowed to attend.

I do not know how credible this rumor is but it is fun to speculate about and great to see it is not just coming from my imagination.

La @FCFSeleccionCol recibirá una propuesta para que el partido ante Uruguy en la Eliminatoria el 13 de noviembre sea en Miami con público. El gobernador de la Florida autorizó desde la semana pasada la entrada de espectadores a los estadios sin restricciones

— Cesar Augusto Londoño (@cesaralo) October 20, 2020

 

Update, Barranquilla has been confirmed for November, not Miami.
(But you never know about 2021 FIFA dates and beyond.)

 

Might make sense if other NTs followed, but really makes no sense if only one team plays their home matches in MIA and the other 9 in South America (given that everyone plays 1 home and 1 away match during each FIFA window). Sure a few extra $$ for Colombia, but would blow for visiting teams to travel to a far away country that is a bi!ch to enter, especially these days.

 

UEFA Preliminary Draw in Zurich on 7 December at 1800 CET.

 

Playoff seeding will be based on the group stage record, not on fifa ranking. 6 best placed runners up will be seeded, while remaining 4 runners up plus two best nations league group winners will be unseeded. In semifinal seeded team will play against unseeded one at home. In the final no seeding will be done and home team will be drawn.

 

Once again, the ridiculous idea of seeding the UEFA pay-offs is being maintained then.

Seeding is only meant to balance the group stage; there is no need to seed a set of play-offs when all of the teams - or in this case ten of the twelve - all achieved the same thing in round one: finishing in second place.

 

To protect their top teams from missing out as much as they can. FIFA lose money when the big teams miss out, but also the rankings aren't always correct which at times leads to unbalanced groups. Its nothing to get too worked up about. The reason is obvious why its done.

 

I appreciate that, but it isn't fair and I'm suprised countries don't question it.

 

Interesting you mention that. What about CAF? They have a group stage followed by a playoff round which decides all 5 qualifiers. Do you think they should leave their playoff draw unseeded as well? Since every team won its group and should be on level footing? Genuinely curious.

 

If playoffs are going to be seeded, let seeding be determined by first round record, not by FIFA ranking again. In this case seeding is important because of home ground field. For me, taking previous round results into consideration makes sense. The same thing should be done in Africa for the latest stage and particularly in Asia. Setting any runner up in front of any group winner from the current stage is completely
ridiculous.

 

Yes, I do.

 

Thanks for answering. I think I also tend to agree with what @mijo34 said.

IMO seeding playoffs based on rankings is a little unfair because you're effectively often punishing teams for bad results in previous cycles which have no relation to the current competition. For example, Sweden ended up qualifying for WC 2018, but they were in Pot 2 for the playoffs essentially because they missed out on 2014 (again because of a bad playoff draw) and had a crappy performance in the Euro 2016 qualis and finals.

Using group stage results is still a bit arbitrary, but at least it's in a team's control. If Bulgaria suddenly plays really well in qualifiers, they can be seeded too no matter what they did before.

 

My problem with that is that you kinda reward (punish) a team twice for getting into an easier (harder) group. Imagine a second- or their-tier UEFA nation fighting their way to second place in a tough group. Chances are their final record won't be one of the better ones, nor their goal difference. On the other hand, think about Switzerland in 2018 qualifying.

But agree that seeding matters too much because of the home field. That's one thing I don't like with the Nations League - it seemed to start a tradition of single-game knockout mini-tournaments. Which is fine in a neutral setting but not when one team gets home advantage.

 

So interestingly enough I did go ahead and check to see if using group record would have changed anything for the last three cycles in UEFA.

2018 - no change (Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia seeds)

2014 - France replaces Croatia in Pot 1 (seeds would be France, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine)

2010 - Ukraine replaces Portugal in Pot 1 (seeds would be France, Russia, Greece, Ukraine)

Overall, the seedings remain relatively similar, which is not probably not too surprising - higher-ranked teams on average are better teams, and so they tend to perform slightly better even over a small sample of matches like this.

In 2014, using group record favors a powerhouse team that was probably unlucky not to be seeded based on FIFA rankings (France was 21st to Ukraine's 20th, and they were in a group with Spain). The perceived "better" team (France) gets seeded over a weaker 2nd-tier side (Croatia).

In 2010, interestingly enough we have the reverse dynamic. Dark horse Ukraine takes Portugal's spot in Pot 1.

So idk what to make of that. France perhaps has a somewhat easier time qualifying for Brazil (although they were pretty fortunate in real life as well to draw Ukraine), while Portugal might have had a more difficult time in 2010. Obviously it's a small sample size, but it's not clear which option favors whom.