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World Cup play-off seeding pays off for FIFA

FIFA's decision to seed nations for the play-off's in the European section of qualifying for World Cup 2010 paid off as France, Portugal and Greece all booked their place in South Africa this summer.

It was originally indicated by FIFA that there would be no seeding system in place for 2010 qualification. But in September 2009, they announced that the play-off’s would in fact be seeded based upon each nation’s World ranking position.

At this time, Russia, Portugal and France each occupied a play-off position in their respective groups with only two games remaining.

FIFA’s desire to ensure that the top countries made the World Cup mirrors the views of football fans around the globe - The fact that the World’s greatest football showpiece should feature the World’s greatest players, so the prospect of a tournament without Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and the like must have seemed almost unimaginable to football’s major governing body.

The decision to seed the nations so late in the qualification process came as a great surprise to many and it was believed that FIFA were waiting to see which teams would be involved before they made their decision.

Upon this announcement it was thought that FIFA had seeded the draw to make provision for the so called ‘bigger’ nations to help them reach South Africa. This ensured that they could not be drawn against each other, meaning that they would each have a greater chance of Qualification.

The eight nations were split into two pots of four with each seeded nation drawn against an unseeded one.

Ranked 34 in the World, Republic of Ireland were one of the teams who were unseeded going into the draw and at the time of the announcement goalkeeper Shay Given said “It’s totally unfair on us smaller nations. If they say that before a ball is kicked then at least you know the picture, you know exactly where you stand but to change it now is absolutely ridiculous and I don’t think it’s right at all.”

Ireland were drawn against France - the highest ranked team in the play-off draw in ninth position. Following a 1-0 defeat in Dublin from the first leg, the Republic needed to win the match at the Stade de France and took the lead after 33 minutes when Robbie Keane coolly slotted the ball past Hugo Lloris.

Both teams had chances to grab the deciding goal but it was during extra time when a William Gallas header sealed a 2-1 aggregate victory for France after Thierry Henry had handled the ball in the build up.

Another of the seeded giants to progress to South Africa were Portugal after they defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 on aggregate.

Leading 1-0 from the first leg in Lisbon, Portugal looked to consolidate their lead and produced a tactful defensive performance before putting the tie to bed when Raul Meireles struck in the 56th minute to shake off the possibility of a Bosnian comeback.

Although Greece were a seeded nation, many would have been excused for thinking that Ukraine had the stronger opportunity to qualify after a 0-0 first leg result in Athens. But the 2004 European Champions clinched the tie after a 1-0 win in Donetsk thanks to a 31st minute strike from Dimitris Salpigidis.

One nation to upset the seeding guide however were Slovenia. The lowest ranked team in the play-off’s took on Russia in the second leg in Maribor after having lost 2-1 in the first leg in Moscow. Zlatko Dedic was the man to score for Slovenia in the 1-0 victory which condemned Russia to an away goals defeat and throw a spanner in the works of FIFA’s seeding system.

Elsewhere is the play-off’s for World Cup qualification, Uruguay successfully negotiated their way through their Conmebol/Concacaf tie with the South Americans running out 2-1 aggregate winners over Costa Rica after a 1-1 draw in Montevideo.

Algeria reached the 2010 World Cup after a 1-0 win over Egypt in Sudan thanks to an Antar Yahia strike just before the interval.

Bahrain were left empty handed again after they lost 1-0 on aggregate to New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania tie. Rory Fallon’s 45th minute header condemned the Middle Eastern side to their second consecutive World Cup play-off defeat after they fell to the hands of Trinidad and Tobago at this stage four years ago.

Posted by Matt Johnson on Monday, 7th December 2009

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