9 groups for 2010 WC qualification

[gspain]

I heard on RTE radio about an hour ago that European teams will be split into
9 groups - 8 groups of 6 teams and 1 of 5 teams. 9 winners qualify for finals and best 8 runners up play off for 4 more spots.

Now I can't find anything else about it anywhere online. Anybody else hear it and have a link to confirm. It would be unusual for FIFA toannoucn ethis on a Sunday and very unusual for RTE to be quick off the mark.

[the ox]

Yeah, that's right. Uefa sent out a press release about it yesterday

[eirebhoy]

I can update the seedings thread now.

[Risteard]

Don't like the sound of that at all.
Very lousy on the 9th second placed team, especially if they're from the group of five.
I thought Europe would get more than 13 places.

[pineapple stu]

I thought Europe would get more than 13 places.
Political correctness and financial pressure.

Italy will also have to qualify, despite being champions, of course.

[Poor Student]

Very lousy on the 9th second placed team, especially if they're from the group of five.


I'd say the best 2nd places will be calculated on the basis of results against the other top 3 or 4 in their group.

[tetsujin1979]

I'd say the best 2nd places will be calculated on the basis of results against the other top 3 or 4 in their group.
Usually the results against the bottom team in the groups with the most teams are disregarded when they decide who the best second teams are, so results against San Marino, Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, etc won't count

[pineapple stu]

Usually the results against the bottom team in the groups with the most teams are disregarded when they decide who the best second teams are, so results against San Marino...won't count
Thank God for that.

[Paddy Garcia]

Usually the results against the bottom team in the groups with the most teams are disregarded when they decide who the best second teams are, so results against San Marino, Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, etc won't count

I hope results against us count!

[gspain]

We would have been touch and go for a 3rd seed had there been 8 groups. with 9 we should be OK. however one runner up missing out on the playoff is not good news.

[RogerMilla]

We would have been touch and go for a 3rd seed had there been 8 groups. with 9 we should be OK. however one runner up missing out on the playoff is not good news.

god i hate the bloody playoffs but missing out like that would be even worse

[cavan_fan]

This doesnt suit us that well. We'll be very dependent on the draw, especially on the identity of the 2nd seed. Some of them are weak enough (e.g. Israel). Best hope is a play off I think.

It would have been fairer to have had the 2 bottom 2nd place teams play off to get into the play-offs proper, dont like the idea that some team goes out despite coming second. It'll end up being the team in the toughest group where everyone takes points off each other.

[Stuttgart88]

Didn't Stan say that being a 3rd seed for next WC was one of this campaign's objectives?

I hope that this doesn't make him complacent. That said, I doubt anyone in FAI will have any clue about the implications for our seeding until the week before the draw is made.

[shakermaker1982]

I prefer the Euro 2008 system of two to go through from each group.

[NeilMcD]

Yeah me too and more away trips also but they reduced it due to pressure from club managers and chairman.



Eight groups of six teams and one group of five will contest the European qualifying competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Nine qualify directly
The UEFA Executive Committee made the decision at its two-day meeting in Heerenveen. As a result the nine group-winners will qualify directly, while the best eight second-placed teams will contest home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places. "It's a good compromise solution, because I wasn't really happy with the format for the last qualifying competition with groups of seven and eight teams," said UEFA President Michel Platini. Europe has 13 places available for the tournament in South Africa.

Future format
The committee also discussed the future format of the European club competitions from 2009 to 2012, in particular the UEFA Champions League. "There will be no changes to the core format [of eight groups of four teams each], but the access modalities will change slightly," said Mr Platini, who added that further discussions on the matter will take place later in the summer, with a decision to be taken at the Executive Committee meeting in Istanbul in September.

[gspain]

This will be a financial blow to the FAI as we could just have 4 competitive home games in 2 years. the current deal on the opening of Croke Park does not allow for friendlies.

From a football point of view though it has to be good news. We would have been struggling to ensure a 3rd seed with an 8 team group. Now we just need 5 points fro mthe last 5 games to be virtually certain of a 3rd seed.

The draw will still be crucial. We could get Italy and Spain as our top 2 seeds or we could get Poland and Israel.

The real key will be the 4th seed. A tight group will 4 evenly matched teams will probably see the runners up missing out on the playoffs. A soft 4th and 5th seeds would mean 10 or 12 points here and rpesumably the min 2 from the 2nd seed would see us in the playoffs.

[RogerMilla]

nicely summed up Gspain , it really is the luck of the draw , another poster summed it up quite well too by saying that it didnt matter where you were seeded just the quality of your team at the time. a plum draw would really give the players themselves a boost and inspire confidence though.

[Cymro]

From a personal point of view this is good news, there are less games which means a much better chance of qualification, as you can have two or three good/lucky results and be right in with a great chance. At the moment you have to be more consistent which we aren't.

[RogerMilla]

And you kinda need to win in places like Cyprus, which we can't seem to do.

that result was an aberration TP and it was 9 months ago , it has been coloured by the german draw out there too , time to move on, let's see how we do in the east, they might just surprise us !