The following is news I got on World Cup seedings. I prefer not to do so to avoid things like previous qualifying game between Ireland and France.
URICH (AP) — FIFA has yet to select a formula to seed the 32 World Cup qualifiers for the finals draw.
Football's world governing body said Thursday that the decision will be taken two days before the Dec. 4 draw in Cape Town, South Africa, by a panel composed mainly of FIFA executive committee members.
"The procedure of the final draw will be decided at the bureau of the organizing committee for the 2010 World Cup," FIFA said in a statement.
FIFA was criticized by European playoff contender Ireland when it confirmed in September -- more than a year after matches began -- that the eight nations advancing to the final qualifying stage would be seeded.
The Irish said that the late decision was designed to protect the chances of higher-ranked nations, including France and Portugal, by keeping them apart in the draw. France eventually knocked out Ireland on a disputed goal in extra time of Wednesday's second leg.
The draw for the final tournament will allocate 32 nations into eight playing groups of four teams. Groups are headed by a top-seeded team with others drawn from each of three seeded tiers.
Host South Africa will automatically be a top-seeded team despite being No. 85 in the FIFA world rankings last month.
The organizing committee's bureau must choose a formula to rank the other 31 teams. It is chaired by African football president Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and includes nine of his FIFA executive colleagues plus South African officials Irvin Khoza and Danny Jordaan.
At past World Cup draws, the formula has combined rankings averaged over the three previous years with performance at the two or three previous tournaments.
Nine of the current top 10 nations have progressed with only seven top seedings available to them.
Traditional powers like France, the Netherlands or Portugal could drop among eight second-tier nations with the possibility of facing favorite Brazil, European champion Spain or world champion Italy in the opening stage.
The bottom tier is sure to include outsiders such as Honduras, New Zealand and North Korea, which top nations would expect to beat. However, it could also include Slovakia, which won its qualifying group despite being ranked No. 53 last March.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
New Approach For England's World Cup Team
Do You Think England Can Wins The World Cup With This Approach?
Fabio Capello has demonstrated his power at the Football Association by vetoing plans for a World Cup "sending-off party" before the players head for the tournament in South Africa next summer.
Senior figures at the FA had been open-minded about the idea after being approached about the possibility of putting on a concert in London next May. A numbers of bands had been sounded out, including the Killers, and it is understood the FA chairman, Lord Triesman, was among those who liked the idea.
Capello, however, is keen to get away from the image that followed Engand's footballers around at the last World Cup, namely that they were too interested in the celebrity lifestyle and other distractions. Explaining his reasons, England's head coach has told associates that he does not feel a country with England's football heritage should be celebrating merely qualifying for the World Cup. The Italian believes the only legitimate reason for a party should be if they return from the tournament as world champions.
Capello has also reputedly decided that his players should not be personally involved in a World Cup song and he has made it clear that he will not tolerate the "Wag" culture that was so prevalent when Sven-Goran Eriksson took the players to Germany for the World Cup in 2006. Before that tournament, David Beckham hosted a party for the players at his house.
Eriksson's decision to allow the wives and girlfriends to spend so much time with their partners provoked a paparazzi frenzy three years ago in the spa town of Baden-Baden, with several players subsequently conceding it had been a distraction during a tournament in which England were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Rio Ferdinand admitted that "football became a secondary element", describing it as "like a circus", and Capello is adamant things will be very different at the team's base in Rustenburg next year, with the players' partners only permitted to visit the camp after each game, and with anyone objecting to his rules advised to "stay at home".
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Trinidad & Tobago's 2006 World Cup squad still in dispute over fees
Put your priority for the country.
Trinidad & Tobago's 2006 World Cup squad suspect their national authorities are engineering a fresh way out of paying match fees from the tournament.
Jack Warner, the special adviser to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation and a vice-president of Fifa, has been involved in a legal wrangle with players such as Shaka Hislop, Dwight Yorke and Stern John, over unpaid match fees.
An arbitration panel in London has already upheld a claim from Mike Townley, the solicitor for the Soca Warriors, that a verbal contract struck between Warner and the players awarded them 50% of the revenues accruing from World Cup activities.
But the players have yet to receive anything and do not know how much they are owed since no independent audit has been carried out. T&T government figures, though, suggest the debt could be as high as £20m. Now a bill has been tabled in the T&T parliament, of which Warner is a member, proposing the creation of a new football association to which all the old one's assets would be transferred.
Although the bill states "all legal proceedings … shall be continued on after the commencement of this Act by the federation", Townley contends there is sufficient leeway written into it to prove the new entity would not be liable. "They owe the players and they are seeking to avoid it," said Townley, who has written to the T&T parliament requesting the rejection of the bill.
Warner, who is understood to be in Mexico with the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, did not respond to calls yesterday but is previously reported to have accused the players of "holding a federation to ransom because of greed".
Trinidad & Tobago's 2006 World Cup squad suspect their national authorities are engineering a fresh way out of paying match fees from the tournament.
Jack Warner, the special adviser to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation and a vice-president of Fifa, has been involved in a legal wrangle with players such as Shaka Hislop, Dwight Yorke and Stern John, over unpaid match fees.
An arbitration panel in London has already upheld a claim from Mike Townley, the solicitor for the Soca Warriors, that a verbal contract struck between Warner and the players awarded them 50% of the revenues accruing from World Cup activities.
But the players have yet to receive anything and do not know how much they are owed since no independent audit has been carried out. T&T government figures, though, suggest the debt could be as high as £20m. Now a bill has been tabled in the T&T parliament, of which Warner is a member, proposing the creation of a new football association to which all the old one's assets would be transferred.
Although the bill states "all legal proceedings … shall be continued on after the commencement of this Act by the federation", Townley contends there is sufficient leeway written into it to prove the new entity would not be liable. "They owe the players and they are seeking to avoid it," said Townley, who has written to the T&T parliament requesting the rejection of the bill.
Warner, who is understood to be in Mexico with the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, did not respond to calls yesterday but is previously reported to have accused the players of "holding a federation to ransom because of greed".
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Another Candidate for Next World Cup?
A delegation led by Sykes Enterprises Inc. chief executive officer Chuck Sykes is headed for New York on Wednesday for a presentation related to Tampa Bay's effort in hosting FIFA World Cup soccer matches in either 2018 or 2022.
The Bay area delegation also includes Tampa Bay & Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Catoe, its senior vice president of marketing Diane Jacob, Mise En Place owner and restaurateur Maryann Ferenc, Farrukh Quraishi, chief operating officer of Brock Communications and founding partner of Long View Management LLC, Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, and several other community leaders.
Several of those executives -- not including Sykes -- will stop first in Washington Tuesday to attend an "interested cities" workshop, the first stage in seeking a nod to host the 2012 Republican National Convention.
On the World Cup bid, Tampa Bay is one of more than two-dozen metros looking to bring either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament game home. Local advocates for the effort have been urging residents to go online and pledge their support by signing a petition to help energize the petition. If selected several years from now, Tampa's Raymond James Stadium would be one of 12 to 18 venues nationally to host the event.
Raymond James Stadium, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' home field, is also home for USF Bulls Division I football, and the venue hosts some of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s top football bowl games such as the ACC Championship Dec. 5.
The region has more than a dozen collegiate and amateur sports events on the winter calendar, according to Tampa Bay & Co., Hillsborough County's tourism marketing arm. The NCAA Woman's Volleyball Championship is scheduled for the St. Pete Times Forum Dec. 17 and Dec. 19.
As of Nov. 9, nearly 6,700 people had voted in support of bringing the games to the Bay area. A similar poll in Orlando had garnered nearly 3,100.
Efforts on behalf of the community go a long way in securing these bids, said Travis Claytor, communications manager with Tampa Bay & Co. Based on the petition, the USA Bid Committee will submit 20 cities to FIFA next year.
“A huge part of our presentation is community support, and it’s important to show how much the wider Tampa Bay community is behind effort,” Claytor said. “That’s a big part of what the petition is all about.”
In 2006, the World Cup tournament in Germany attracted 3.4 million spectators, averaging about 52,491 fans a game. It attracted about 2 million tourists who spent about $766 million.
The Bay area delegation also includes Tampa Bay & Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Catoe, its senior vice president of marketing Diane Jacob, Mise En Place owner and restaurateur Maryann Ferenc, Farrukh Quraishi, chief operating officer of Brock Communications and founding partner of Long View Management LLC, Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, and several other community leaders.
Several of those executives -- not including Sykes -- will stop first in Washington Tuesday to attend an "interested cities" workshop, the first stage in seeking a nod to host the 2012 Republican National Convention.
On the World Cup bid, Tampa Bay is one of more than two-dozen metros looking to bring either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament game home. Local advocates for the effort have been urging residents to go online and pledge their support by signing a petition to help energize the petition. If selected several years from now, Tampa's Raymond James Stadium would be one of 12 to 18 venues nationally to host the event.
Raymond James Stadium, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' home field, is also home for USF Bulls Division I football, and the venue hosts some of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s top football bowl games such as the ACC Championship Dec. 5.
The region has more than a dozen collegiate and amateur sports events on the winter calendar, according to Tampa Bay & Co., Hillsborough County's tourism marketing arm. The NCAA Woman's Volleyball Championship is scheduled for the St. Pete Times Forum Dec. 17 and Dec. 19.
As of Nov. 9, nearly 6,700 people had voted in support of bringing the games to the Bay area. A similar poll in Orlando had garnered nearly 3,100.
Efforts on behalf of the community go a long way in securing these bids, said Travis Claytor, communications manager with Tampa Bay & Co. Based on the petition, the USA Bid Committee will submit 20 cities to FIFA next year.
“A huge part of our presentation is community support, and it’s important to show how much the wider Tampa Bay community is behind effort,” Claytor said. “That’s a big part of what the petition is all about.”
In 2006, the World Cup tournament in Germany attracted 3.4 million spectators, averaging about 52,491 fans a game. It attracted about 2 million tourists who spent about $766 million.
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