Official Seedings Thread

[RogerMilla]

Guys what is the story with the seedings now ? where will we be in the WC qualifiers ? do we need to beat wales or are we safely in whatever particular pot ??

[Littlest Hobo]

Even after last nights shambles, we are still in Pot C for the World Cup draw.
I believe we will finish third in the group with at leaset a point from cardiff, which is all we can hope for. That's as good as we are:o

[eirebhoy]

It's all to do with the FIFA rankings now so we'll have to wait and see.

[Stuttgart88]

The FIFA rankings computer is blowing a fuse as we speak.

Ireland is as good as Germany.

Ireland is as bad as Cyprus.

Irreconcilable circular argument.

Bang, loud explosion.

Sepp steps in and says it's better for Ireland to be a 3rd seed anyway and so that's what happens.

[RogerMilla]

so pot C it is , has anyone got the rankings or worked out the system ?

[RogerMilla]

ok looks like we wont know until just before the draw

seedings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA))

[gspain]

If somebody knows then can you please post the rankings points. Frankly it is still speculation at this stage. The rankings are very volatile now as they are based on just 4 years and all our previous October results get a reduced weighting.

It is not known yet whether November's results will be even included. The current rankings in place at the time of the draw will not include November's results but there may be a decision to calculate again based on these.

It is still likely we'll be 3rd seeds.

Under the old system we'd still need a point from wales to be guaranteed 3td seeds and would most likely have missed out on a defeat.

Note we have also moved down the European rankings from this campaign. we have only moved up the seedings because there are 9 group for WC2010 and 7 for Euro2008

[WembleyGreen]

If we beat Wales we might finish 3rd. MIGHT being the magic word! Slovakia have 2 games left one of them against San Marino and the other against the Czechs, normally I would say that they would only get 3pts out of this but, with their Czech cousins already qualified they could win! especially if the Czechs put out a reserve team. Slovakia have far superior GD to us so even with 3pts against Wales we might miss out on 3rd spot. Even worse, Cyprus could also overtake us if by chance they were to take full pts from their last 2 games agaist the two qualified teams!!! Failure by us to win in Wales and 1 win from either one of their matches would see us finish 5th behind both of the above or worse again if we got stuffed 4-0 by Wales, we'd be 6th. That my friends is the costly legacy of last nights shambles and even though it's a worst case scenario it is a distinct possibility. Would Delaney still call that progress?

[Stuttgart88]

If we tied with Slovakia wouldn't we be ahead having got 4 pts from them?

[NeilMcD]

Goal difference does not make a difference as we beat them and drew with them so our head to head is better.

[gspain]

If we beat Wales we might finish 3rd. MIGHT being the magic word! Slovakia have 2 games left one of them against San Marino and the other against the Czechs, normally I would say that they would only get 3pts out of this but, with their Czech cousins already qualified they could win! especially if the Czechs put out a reserve team. Slovakia have far superior GD to us so even with 3pts against Wales we might miss out on 3rd spot. Even worse, Cyprus could also overtake us if by chance they were to take full pts from their last 2 games agaist the two qualified teams!!! Failure by us to win in Wales and 1 win from either one of their matches would see us finish 5th behind both of the above or worse again if we got stuffed 4-0 by Wales, we'd be 6th. That my friends is the costly legacy of last nights shambles and even though it's a worst case scenario it is a distinct possibility. Would Delaney still call that progress?

A 2 goal win for Wales would put them ahead of us on the head to head.

our final position does not affect our seeding. Our world ranking does.

[Bungle]

1 Italy 1488 2 58
2 Argentina 1451 0 -40
3 Brazil 1444 -2 -64
4 Germany 1330 1 -7
5 Netherlands 1246 2 35
6 France 1220 -2 -160
7 Spain 1178 1 13
8 Portugal 1169 2 12
9 England 1165 3 74
10 Croatia 1151 -4 -72
11 Czech Republic 1082 -2 -76
12 Romania 1037 1 -53
13 Mexico 1026 -2 -73
14 Scotland 1025 9 112
15 Greece 940 -1 -94
16 Poland 926 4 -15
17 Ukraine 900 -2 -102
18 USA 897 -1 -88
19 Uruguay 889 2 -34
20 Sweden 888 -1 -62
21 Turkey 883 1 -32
22 Serbia 877 -4 -88
23 Nigeria 867 3 -37
24 Colombia 862 7 19
25 Cameroon 856 -9 -145
26 Russia 851 -2 -58
27 Côte d'Ivoire 806 1 -57
28 Denmark 794 2 -56
29 Norway 763 6 -5
30 Guinea 752 12 49
31 Paraguay 750 0 -93
32 Republic of Ireland 733 5 -4
33 Israel 732 0 -80
34 Japan 731 7 7
35 Bulgaria 727 -6 -129
36 Northern Ireland 707 -9 -179
37 Tunisia 692 -1 -47
38 Morocco 688 -4 -103
39 Bosnia-Herzegovina 686 -14 -219
40 Iran 685 4 -7
40 Senegal 685 6 26
42 Switzerland 683 3 15
43 Egypt 679 -3 -47
44 Finland 678 -6 -54
45 Ghana 671 -2 -22
46 Slovakia 663 -7 -65
47 Chile 624 0 -28
48 Australia 620 1 -7
49 Mali 613 -1 -21
50 Korea Republic
51 Saudi Arabia 579 0 -1
52 Peru 563 2 11
53 Wales 551 21 123
54 Canada 547 -1 -18
55 Hungary 544 10 80
56 Costa Rica 534 -4 -39
57 Ecuador 527 -2 -18
58 Venezuela 521 -2 -19
59 Honduras 516 -2 -1
60 Belgium 509 9 71
61 Zambia 504 1 24
62 Uzbekistan 491 -4 -17
63 Togo 483 -3 -19
64 Trinidad and Tobago 477 -1 2
65 Iraq 475 -1 1
66 Panama 470 5 35
67 FYR Macedonia 455 0 -1
68 Cyprus 452 14 57
69 Angola 446 -10 -61
70 Belarus 445 -1 7
71 Cuba 442 20 77
72 Equatorial Guinea 440 33 125
73 South Africa 437 -12 -51
74 Mozambique 432 12 56
75 Slovenia 429 19 72
76 Cape Verde Islands 426 -4 -8
77 Congo DR 421 -2 -2
78 Albania 420 -12 -42
79 Oman 416 -3 -2
80 Iceland 414 37 165
81 Moldova 413 25 121
82 Benin 410 -3 10
83 Haiti 407 5 36
84 Lithuania 398 -6 -3
85 Austria 395 -1 12
85 Algeria 395 -12 -38
87 Armenia 393 -6 -3
88 Guatemala 387 -8 -10
89 China PR 383 -4 5
90 Bolivia 376 -22 -72
91 Qatar 374 -8 -15
92 Libya 373 -5 1
93 Zimbabwe 369 8 42
94 Latvia 364 16 90
95 Botswana 363 1 16
96 Jamaica 361 -1 11
97 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 358 7 42
98 Bahrain 354 -6 -8
99 Jordan 348 0 11
100 Uganda


Right to be third seeds, we'll have to be in the top 27 in Europe according to the FIFA rankings (this is from September I believe:don't know if it was before the double header). According to this, we're 18th of the Eurpean teams at the time this was calculated. We're probably down somewhat but we'll almost certainly be a third seed.

[Bungle]

the pity is that we could have made second seeds quite easily as it is based solely on the fifa rankings.

[WembleyGreen]

Apologies guys I forgot the head to head. Duh!

[RogerMilla]

the pity is that we could have made second seeds quite easily as it is based solely on the fifa rankings.
that really is a pity as it could make a massive difference

[Armando]

According to this, we're 18th of the Eurpean teams at the time this was calculated. We're probably down somewhat but we'll almost certainly be a third seed.

Are we not 21st according to that list?

[RogerMilla]

21st by my calculation too

[Bungle]

yeah we're 21st a:olright!!!

[CollegeTillIDie]

21st in Europe.... no wonder we didn't qualify ......

[RogerMilla]

now that the euros have expanded to 16 teams we should be qualifying every time. the world cup has less places so certainly much trickier. barring the appointment of jose maurinho or someone of his ilk we can forget about a trip to africa to support our team.

[pineapple stu]

21st in Europe.... no wonder we didn't qualify ......
:rolleyes:

We're 21st in Europe because we didn't qualify.

[eirebhoy]

Latest FIFA Rankins announced. No change for us.

1 Italy
2 France
3 Germany
4 Spain
5 Netherlands
6 Portugal
7 Czech Republic
8 Croatia
9 England

10 Romania
11 Scotland
12 Greece
13 Russia
14 Poland
15 Norway
16 Ukraine
17 Sweden
18 Serbia

19 Turkey
20 Denmark
21 Republic of Ireland
22 Bulgaria
23 Northern Ireland
24 Israel
25 Switzerland
26 Finland
27 Hungary

28 Bosnia-Herzegovina
29 Slovakia
30 Belgium
31 Cyprus
32 Wales
33 Moldova
34 Albania
35 Georgia
36 FYR Macedonia

37 Slovenia
38 Iceland
39 Armenia
40 Latvia
41 Austria
42 Lithuania
43 Belarus
44 Azerbaijan
45 Liechtenstein

46 Kazakhstan
47 Estonia
48 Malta
49 Luxembourg
50 Montenegro
51 Andorra
52 Faroe Islands
53 San Marino

[Jerry The Saint]

Just for the record, when Delaney sacked Brian Kerr for, among other things, a drop in the FIFA World Rankings we were 23rd in the world...

1 Brazil 841 0 1
2 Czech Republic 796 1 13
3 Netherlands 791 -1 -6
4 Argentina 774 0 -4
5 France 772 0 -4
6 Spain 771 2 7
7 Mexico 768 -1 -1
8 USA 766 -1 -2
9 England 757 0 3
10 Portugal 754 -1 0
11 Turkey 749 0 6
12 Italy 741 0 5
13 Denmark 732 1 2
14 Sweden 731 -1 -2
15 Japan 713 1 2
16 Germany 710 -1 -2
17 Greece 708 1 2
18 Uruguay 706 -1 -3
19 Iran 702 2 3
20 Croatia 701 -1 -1
21 Costa Rica 699 -1 -1
22 Cameroon 697 1 6
23 Republic of Ireland 696 -2 -3


... or 14th in Europe


1 Czech Republic 796 1 13
2 Netherlands 791 -1 -6
3 France 772 0 -4
4 Spain 771 2 7
5 England 757 0 3
6 Portugal 754 -1 0
7 Turkey 749 0 6
8 Italy 741 0 5
9 Denmark 732 1 2

10 Sweden 731 -1 -2
11 Germany 710 -1 -2
12 Greece 708 1 2
13 Croatia 701 -1 -1
14 Republic of Ireland 696 -2 -3


Of course, the FAI aren't bothered about defending Staunton anymore. It's funny how quickly a 1-1 draw vs. Cyprus caused the FAI to drop the excuses about improved seeding, four-year plan etc. Unbelievable how two-faced they are. :mad:

[RogerMilla]

ok what is the story with the wales game , how does the result affect our seedings? is it irrelevant ?

[Serb]

Irrelevant as far as I know. We won't drop enough to become 4th seeds and we can't climb enough to become 2nd seeds.

[RogerMilla]

thank feck for that as i think we are going to get hammered by wales

[geysir]

Just for the record, when Delaney sacked Brian Kerr for, among other things, a drop in the FIFA World Rankings we were 23rd in the world...

... or 14th in Europe

We lost 6 places between June and July 2006 when FIFA revised their rankings. So for the record we were probably provisional 3rd seeds when Stan took over.
Stan was a hero who kept our 3rd seeding safe.

[Wolfie]

What odds on England, Scotland and Wales in our group?

[RogerMilla]

what odds all three? at least we cant get Norn Iron but I wouldnt fancy England either as bragging rights are way too big to lose on those two opponents..

[Wolfie]

what odds all three? at least we cant get Norn Iron but I wouldnt fancy England either as bragging rights are way too big to lose on those two opponents..

That's true - we're at our lowest ebb in over 20 years and it would be the first time in that space of time that I'd fear for us against England. I'd still take on Norn Iron though.

We could also draw the mighty San Marino again.

[RogerMilla]

nah it'll be montenegro , or perhaps estonia are the best team in that pot

[RogerMilla]

Czech rep., norway , ireland , moldova , liechtenstein , andorra is the draw we want...

[Ireland4ever]

Czech rep., norway , ireland , moldova , liechtenstein , andorra is the draw we want...

Andorra could yet bprove to be a Banana skin in that group!:D:D

[RogerMilla]

Andorra could yet bprove to be a Banana skin in that group!:D:D

need to catch them early they could improve as the group goes on !

[osarusan]

Czech rep., norway , ireland , moldova , liechtenstein , andorra is the draw we want...

Not having seen the seedings list, but assuming that 1 team is drawn from each "level" of seeds, would that mean Liechtenstein are a higher seed than Andorra?

[EalingGreen]

Not having seen the seedings list, but assuming that 1 team is drawn from each "level" of seeds, would that mean Liechtenstein are a higher seed than Andorra?

Having seen them twice, I'd warn that Liechtenstein are a considerably better team than Andorra and indeed a better team than Iceland - notwithstanding that we beat Licky twice and lost twice to Iceland!

Maybe Liechtenstein will fall back again, but with victories over Latvia and Iceland recently, they've definitely come on in the last couple of years. The best of the "minnows", imo.

(Bloody nice place to go for an way trip, too, especially in winter!)

[RogerMilla]

Having seen them twice, I'd warn that Liechtenstein are a considerably better team than Andorra and indeed a better team than Iceland - notwithstanding that we beat Licky twice and lost twice to Iceland!

Maybe Liechtenstein will fall back again, but with victories over Latvia and Iceland recently, they've definitely come on in the last couple of years. The best of the "minnows", imo.

(Bloody nice place to go for an way trip, too, especially in winter!)

if i was picking trips then iceland would deffo be the best one but i cant see the ties against the lickys being tricker than the trips to slovenia , azerbaijan etc

[jmurphyc]

if i was picking trips then iceland would deffo be the best one but i cant see the ties against the lickys being tricker than the trips to slovenia , azerbaijan etc

Yeah Iceland would be a fantastic place to have a game. Is it hard to get there? I assume there are no direct flights from Ireland.

I would hate to get England at the moment as well. Don't know how we'd be able to live down a thrashing if it happened. Hopefully we'll be more competitive under the new manager, although that shouldn't be hard!

[EalingGreen]

if i was picking trips then iceland would deffo be the best one but i cant see the ties against the lickys being tricker than the trips to slovenia , azerbaijan etc

Don't know about Slovenia, but Licky are currently a considerably better team than Azerbaijan, trust me. And recent results demonstrate that they're currently better than Iceland (though Iceland have just sacked a pretty useless manager, so may recover).

As for away trips, Iceland is a fascinating country, no doubt, with some of the best looking women on the planet! But it's horrendously expensive and a bit dead for a midweek game (w/ends are brill, mind).

Whereas, Licky is easy and inexpensive to get to from Austria, Switz or even Germany. (I tagged our weekend game there in March onto a week's skiing
in Western Austria - the ideal away trip, imo! :)

[Cymro]

Ealing Green, I saw Liechtenstein play against both yourselves and us. We won 4-0, you won 3-0 iirc. Azerbaijan caused us both problems in the WC 2006 group we were all in, drawing against both of us in Azerbaijan. I'd say Azerbaijan are the stronger team, to be honest. I could probably see us coming away from Liechtenstein with 3 points, but wouldn't be so confident about Azerbaijan.

[DmanDmythDledge]

That's true - we're at our lowest ebb in over 20 years and it would be the first time in that space of time that I'd fear for us against England.
Even with McClaren as their manager?:eek: Now that we'll have a decent manager (touch wood) we would have them.

[shakermaker1982]

is there a good chance of England dropping into pool B if they lose/draw with the Croatians? They have been top seeds for a good while now and it would be nice to see em paired up with one of the bigger nations for a change :) The Hoddle era must have been last time they had one of the big guns i.e. Italy.

I think if we got paired up with England, Norway/Scotland we'd have a decent shot of at least finishing runners up. If we end up with Sweden (from pot B) we might struggle.

[backstothewall]

Is there any possibility of a group with England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland B this time? Assuming England will be top seeds?

[EalingGreen]

Is there any possibility of a group with England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland B this time? Assuming England will be top seeds?

That should be possible. Alternatively, you might get a group including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which would provide a welcome opportunity for NI to defend their British Championship title (unofficially, of course).

However, NI and "Ireland B" are likely both to be third seeds, so cannot be drawn together.

[zenokelly]

if i was picking trips then iceland would deffo be the best one

What about Kazakhstan:D

What a place to have a match. No one will be moaning about Bratislava again. Doubt there's too many ways of getting there either so no one will be complaining about the 12.25 Bratislava-Prague.

[Wolfie]

Even with McClaren as their manager?:eek: Now that we'll have a decent manager (touch wood) we would have them.

I'll say nothing until we see whose appointed.

[RogerMilla]

What about Kazakhstan:D

What a place to have a match. No one will be moaning about Bratislava again. Doubt there's too many ways of getting there either so no one will be complaining about the 12.25 Bratislava-Prague.

not getting on the 12.25 was one of the best decisions i ever made in my life.
we cruised up on the later one , a cabin to ourselves.


bring on the kazakhs!!

[Hibernian]

Does anyone know when Ireland find out in what Pot they will be placed in for the 2010 World Cup??

I know the draw takes place this weekend looking forward to it.

[beautifulrock]

Interesting to see that all the number 1 & 2 seeds will now probably qualify for Euro2008 with the exception of Denmark (mainly because of one mad fan). Our recent run of result will have done nothing to help us although finishing 3rd (somehow) should mean we are either 3/4 seeds.

[Stuttgart88]

with the exception of Denmark (mainly because of one mad fan). In fairness, the Swedes had just been awarded a penalty so you'd expect they'd have won 4-3.