Thursday, December 03, 2009

South Africa 2010: Fifa has seeded, now we await the Draw

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina.

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America) Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.

Pot 3 (Africa/South America) Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria.

Pot 4 (Europe) France, Portugal, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.

There you are. The long drawn debate about whether France and Portugal deserved to be seeded in Pot 1 has been answered. But if the two nations had been seeded it would have created an uproar at a time when Fifa's name is not perceived in such a good light following Thierry's handball.

And the seeding of France and Portugal before that.

As it stands, the big guns are unlikely to meet anytime in the group stages with most of the 'juicy' games reserved for later.

Later today, Fifa would be meeting on Robben Island to deliberate on other key issues. More of that in a bit.