Would beg to differ there. Portugal's group (DEN + SWE) looks quite a lot easier to me than what Ukraine had (ENG + CRO). While I note that England sucked in the WC that followed, they are generally strong in qualifying. Ukraine "deserved" the seed more IMO, but yeah.... extremely small sample size. The main finding here is that it doesn't make much difference.
Away teams did pretty fine in the Euro playoffs this month...but the nearly-empty stadia probably helped even things out.
Yup. If I believed in superstitious non-sense I would think this (i.e. teams forced to play in empty or mostly-empty stadiums) was some sort of sign from above that single-legged ties are not fair, or even reasonably close to fair.
My older son and my wife are planning their Qatar trip. Alex will be a college Freshman, so they figure they can meet up there after finals.
You better be prepared to stay with a Qatari family then because that is the latest innovation I have heard them planning if Hotels fill up. SO you will feel like an exchange student. You cannot make this stuff up.
We used to have friends in Qatar, but they have all moved out. My son's idea is to stay with friends in Dubai and fly in for them games.
Maybe Air BnB will be big in Qatar 2 years from now. I mean, if they can build portable stadiums and move them to Africa anything is possible.
No... this is a problem for us residents in Qatar actually because we used to use many of the Emirati airlines, Emirates, Etihad, Air Arabia, FlyDubai (the latter discount airlines), so that's made travel a lot more expensive. Well no one is travelling these days anyway. But honestly, I never thought I'd see the day when Qataris couldn't go to Dubai but Israelis could... politics I guess....
Is the airport baby in the bin/ passenger strip search internal examinations story getting much attention on the ground in Qatar? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10...omen-examined-baby-born-what-we-know/12817070
Nothing wrong with seeding playoffs. There has to be some benefit to the FIFA rankings, even though they are not always accurate. Seeding based off prior group stages is silly because all the groups are not even. By this logic there shouldn't be any seeding at a WC proper, just randomly draw teams into groups. Keep in mind that good results in a prior round might actually propel a team ahead of another in the rankings. Africa definitely needs to seed the final rounds, given such a small set of prior round games, against uneven groupings, as well as a clear set of superior teams. Having the possibility of the 2 clear best sides Algeria and Senegal go head to head is just asinine. I dont think it would be as detrimental for the playoffs in Europe to not be seeded, but when the entire qualifying hinges on playoffs in CAF it is a must.
I'm fine as long as it's announced up-front, not at the last minute like back in 2009 when FIFA panicked at the possibility of a France-Portugal playoff.
You said It is unfair that two best african sides face each other in playoffs. But what about if senegal (or algeria) doesn't win their group. Do you think it woold be correct that algeria faces mauritania or whatever other team which will be ahead of senegal in the group stage? I don't think so. In your case, let's make the playoff draw in advance putting 5 the best ranked teams in pot 1. If any seed team from the group stage fails to qualify for the playoffs, their berth will be overtaken by their group stage oponnent. Similarly they did in concacaf for the second stage. Keep in mind one thing. You cannot organize a draw by meaning "let's wait for participants, then we can seed them'. Everything must be known in advance. What is the purpose of the draw if you know in advance, if spain will be in the plaxoffs, they will surely be seeded. Or estonia will be unseeded for sure.
Well, until recently they only seeded the top 8 teams for the WC proper. So three-quarters of it was unseeded. In any case, not sure I agree with that analogy. I think you need at least some seeding for the WC group stage. The 32 teams had different levels of success en-route to qualifying. But a playoff among second-place teams? Everyone basically achieved the same thing so not sure that needs to be seeded at all, frankly.
I agree (except when you say, until recently they only seeded the top 8 teams for the WC proper. So three-quarters of it was unseeded. Seeding of all the teams that qualify for the final competition has existed for all WCs, or certainly those since the end of World War 2.)
Right, except for most of those World Cups only the top 4 or 6 or 8 (depending on the format) teams were actually seeded based on rankings or other merit/performance-based criteria. The "seeding" of the other teams basically just consisted of grouping together teams based on being in the same confederation or some other vague geographical criteria, which, while maybe better than a purely random draw, wasn't strictly merit-based. So it wasn't "seeded" in the traditional sense at least.
I see what you mean, yes, that's right it was - mainly - a final draw with geogrpahically-based pots of teams, not seeded teams based on a ranking outside the top 4 or 6 teams.
In a landmark change, the UAE eliminated two of its biggest "tourist traps" last week: https://whatson.ae/2020/11/new-uae-law-allows-unmarried-couples-to-live-together/ Alcohol may now be legally consumed by anyone above the age of 21. Residents and tourists - irrespective of religion. Before alcohol could only be legally consumed with a license (available only to non-muslim residents) although hotels would serve to anyone without checks. Unmarried couples can now legally live together and this naturally extends to the cohabitation of tourists at hotel rooms. This was hardly ever enforced previously (and definitely not for tourists) but to see such a change put into law is nothing short of revolutionary for the region. Over to you Qatar.
The alcohol in hotels only requirement lead to the situation that just about every restaurant in Dubai was technically attached to a hotel. It seemed whenever I was out to dinner the restaurant was in a long wing that was part of a hotel complex in order to piggy back on the rule. have they changed the rule about holding hands? The one time my family accompanied me we were walking through a mall and I was holding hands with my wife. We were asked (nicely) to stop.
That rule is still in place. You need to be a hotel or private club (like a golf club for example) in order to apply for an alcohol business license. The point is you were technically breaking the law by consuming alcohol as a tourist. That was only allowed for residents who applied for a personal license with approval from their employer. The new laws don't affect public display of affection. In what year did you visit? Nowadays I don't see holding hands really being an issue. Neither is a hug or a kiss on the cheek (and you see a lot more at the many alcohol fueled brunches). But again, in this scenario a lot of it depends on the venue and how the management chooses to handle a situation.
Last time I was there was in February 2014. The time my family joined me was in 2013 I think. It was my kids’ school break. I’m a middle aged family man so not into the alcohol fueled anything any more.
UEFA Round one draw in just over 12 hours from now - Monday evening Europe time. (4 in the next morning here, 6pm in CET, midday in NY etc etc etc). Seeding link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA) J