Official Seedings Thread

[pineapple stu]

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

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.

[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!

[RogerMilla]

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

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.