2nd place

[stickyjoe]

any ideas on this lads?

How do FIFA work out who the best 2nd place teams are to get the automatic qualification spots?

tried finding this on FIFA.com but cant see it anywhere. Some groups have 7 teams and some have 6 so i presume it will be some system whereby the results against either the top 4, 5 or 6 teams count.

our group will do well to get a best 2nd place qualifier considering the amount of draws.

[Peadar]

our group will do well to get a best 2nd place qualifier considering the amount of draws.

Teams on the same points will have the results in their head to head games used as a way of separating them.

[NeilMcD]

To decide the best 2nd place is different to deciding what happens if two teams are drawing in teh same group.


I.e. THe 2 best 2nd places automatically qualify. This is decided by peoples points totals againts all the teams in the group with the exception of the 7th placed team. In a group of 6 this does not apply but it does if a group has 7 teams.

[Stuttgart88]

I think he's asking from which 2 groups do the second placed teams qualify automatically, and how is it determined. And I haven't a clue on the answer but I'm pretty sure it won't be from our group.

[Junior]

from memory, the groups with 7 teams exclude the results from the last placed side.

Then its a case of points, GD etc.... of the Runners up.

It won't be of conern to us anyhow. England/Poland and someone from Swedens group look like the favourites for this route.

[tetsujin1979]

AFAIK it's points total based on results against the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th placed teams, so teams in a group with an extra team have their results against whoever comes last disregarded

[NeilMcD]

yeah its decided on your points total against all the other teams in your group with the exception of the 7th team in your group



If say Holland in Group 1 Finish 2nd in their 7 team group with 24 points however they got 6 points from the 7th team in the group their points total woudl be 18


And if we finished second in our 6 team group with 19 points we would be ahead of them


Our group is out of the running for it though. I dont think it will concern us.

[boysingreen]

There will be 8 second-placed teams, as there are 8 groups. The 2 of these 8 teams with the highest point tally automatically qualify.

If your group has 7 teams, your points against the last placed team will not count toward your tally.

[Closed Account 2]

Here is how the groups look at the moment

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/t/group/index.html?zone=eur

With Germany qualified automatically as hosts, 51 UEFA member associations will compete for the 13 European qualifying places. The teams will be drawn into three groups of seven teams and five groups of six teams.

Qualifiers
The eight group winners and the two runners-up with the best records will qualify automatically. The other six second placed teams are drawn against each other for three play-off matches (on home and away basis) to determine the other three qualifiers.



Group 1-------------Pld-Pts
Netherlands---------6---16
Czech Republic------6---15
Romania-------------7--13
Finland--------------6---9
F.Y.R. Macedonia----7---5
Armenia-------------7---4
Andorra-------------7---4

Group 2 Pld Pts

Ukraine-------------7--17
Greece--------------7--14
Turkey--------------7--12
Denmark------------7---9
Albania-------------7--- 6
Georgia-------------6---5
Kazakhstan----------5---0


Group 3 Pld Pts
Portugal-------------6---14
Slovakia-------------6---14
Russia---------------6---11
Latvia---------------6---10
Estonia--------------6---8
Liechtenstein--------6---4
Luxembourg---------7---0

Group 4 Pld Pts
France--------------6--10
Israel---------------6---10
Switzerland----------5---9
IRELAND-------------5---9
Cyprus--------------6---1
Faroe Islands--------4---1

Group 5 Pld Pts

Italy----------------5---12
Norway-------------5----8
Slovenia------------5----8
Belarus-------------4----5
Scotland------------4----2
Moldova-------------5----2


Group 6 Pld Pts

England----------6--16
Poland-----------6--15
Austria-----------6--11
Northern Ireland---6--3
Wales-------------6--2
Azerbaijan---------6--2



Group 7 Pld Pts

Serbia & M.-------5--11
Spain-------------5--9
Lithuania----------5--9
Belgium------------5--7
Bosnia-------------4--3
San Marino---------6--0


Group 8 Pld Pts

Croatia--------5--13
Sweden--------5--12
Bulgaria--------5--8
Hungary--------5--7
Iceland---------5--1
Malta-----------5--1


Its looking like the two strongest runners up will be from groups 8 and 6 (these groups only have 6 teams in, so all results count in that sense, and the current 2nd-placers are on 12 and 15 points from 5 and 6 games respectivly).

Its a bit of a pain, as I'd fancy our chances against Croatia/Sweden and most definately against Poland over 2 legs. If we do get runners up and then a play off I wouldnt fancy group 1 (Holland/Czechs) or group 7 (Serbia/Spain), as long as Portugal win group 3 then there are no other teams I'd class as significantly better than us in contention for play off spots (the Italians and English will most probably win their groups).