Why Belgium and Switzerland should not be seeded

Agree. Italy struggled to qualify and had a dismal 2010 WC. So by the authors method (which I don't agree with) should be seeded.

In regards to having easy groups during qualifying, you can only face who you're up against. Belgium will be a dark horse at this WC. Just you watch.

Disagree. Belgium have a team full of unbelievable players and will go deep into this World Cup. They're definitely my back up team should things not go well for Australia! (Which is a fair chance unfortunately!) -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.

You've summed it up very well. This article clearly explains how Switzerland used the system to generate more Fifa ranking points http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25134584. In summary: If you want to be one of the top seeds at the World Cup it is only worth playing teams in the top 20 - although these matches are harder to win. In the same way, I've read that tennis players will pick and choose tournaments to maintain high ATP rankings.

Achieving world cup qualification should also mean "bonus points" Scotland is ranked higher than Australia yet we have qualified for 3 World Cups now. Bonus points should also be awarded for "reaching stages of the world cup"

you claim that meaningless friendlies should not count towards rankings in a way that suggests that Belgium and Switzerland played a bunch of meaningless friendlies to improve their rank in actual fact, the reason that Holland and Italy lowered their ranking was because they played friendlies (and won) which actually lowered their ranking. Qualifiers and meaningful matches are the most weighted and often playing friendlies will diminish your ranking. Belgium is definitely powerhouse at the moment. Switzerland less so. That does not mean they don't deserve their rankings. They played the rankings game the smartest way and it paid off handsomely.

You've lost me. What criterion is being changed? On the date of the Draw and the week leading up to the Draw, Russia was the lowest ranked UEFA nation. France was not the lowest. I see no reason why the date of the Draw should not be the cut-off point for rankings.

You couldn't do the seeding of pots with one criteria and then change it though.

All this showed me is that due to the fact that it is not the best 32 teams in the world at the tournament, any group with a lack of Euros and South Americans is going to be weak, at least when compared to world rankings. The first two examples you give are groups with only 1 non South American/European team and hence tough. In contrast the two weak groups you showed have only two Euros. As long as the tournament is about more than just having the 32 best teams in the final, then you're going to get weak and strong groups, no matter how you do this.

Hello Nick, Don't worry, I wasn't being entirely serious when I suggested that Platini had a hand in the amended draw! Although I do have my suspicions about Switzerland... Rather like you I suspect that FIFA would have preferred a nation with a smaller TV audience to have been drawn into pot 2 instead of Italy, and the prospect of either them or England going out early won't be pleasing the money men. As for England, I'm not convinced by our chances: I don't think any team in our group will be too threatened by us, and Italy and Uruguay will probably be fairly confident of beating us. The English media have already been saying that heat and humidity will be a factor in our opening match in Manaus too, making excuses over 6 months before the game! Still, Italy aren't bulletproof, as the last World Cup demonstrated; Uruguay can be beaten, and we do have a squad that knows only too well how to wind up Suarez; while Costa Rica's route to Brazil was pretty easy, what with the usually dominant Mexico stuttering their way through CONCACAF, so they may be a dark horse... I'd rather Switzerland, Ecuador, & Honduras though!

i second this comment, the ranking is based on merit. I would agree that those teams are not the power house, however its merit over name.

If you want to blame someone blame FIFA at the 2010 World Cup At that time World Cup Seedings were done with the combination of previous results in World Cup and FIFA Rankings. Hence temas that failed to qualify to the previous World Cup, it was impossible for them to be seeded (as it should be). Seedings should only happen when teams prove they deserve it after performance in the world cup not with teams that do well in qualifiers However what happen was the Hand Of Frog event happen and FIFA decided to remove the performance from World Cup from seeding determination and used a pure FIFA rankings to ensure that Netherlands were seeded instead of France. Now we stuck with this ridiculous system where teams get punish simply for playing friendly against weak sides (Netherlands, Italy and England missed out on seedings purely because they decided to play friendlies) Colombia , Belgium and Switzerland should not be seeded because they haven't earnt seedings by delivering in world cup. Beligium may be a talent golden generation side but they have to prove it by doing in the world cup before getting seeds. It's a disgrace that Netherlands missed out on seeding considering they are World Cup finalist and they have blitz through qualifying

The only matches that should count for fifa rankings are tournaments, not friendlies that are set up to purposefully benefit some nations. Chris, claiming that England beat Italy is a little bit short sighted when you consider that only 18 months ago Italy knocked England out of the Euros and went on to beating Germany and then playing Spain in the final. I actually agree that Belgium should be there, but please explain why Switzerland should be considered to be at a higher level than say Italy who have roughly the same results in qualifying yet did much better than the Swiss in Euro 2012. Too much weighting is given to friendlies. We all know it. For christ sake we even beat Germany a couple of years ago. You're not going to tell me that they really gave a stuff. Friendlies advantage the weaker teams because they see it as a challenge. The big players come out when it matters most, qualifying for tournaments or the tournaments themselves.

hey HP! Dunno if Platini and Blatter did interfere on the draw/hats so that their country of birth get the best draw possible really. IMO what happened is that they wanted to 'guarantee' that a team like France wouldn't end up in a real group of death with Brasil?spain?germany and another big name. I want to believe that if Italy or England had been in France's position (9th euro team) they would have done the same, i.e. help or 'arrange' the draw so that a group of death with 3 big names isn't drawn. (imo we don't have a real group of death in this WC). No one really wants a top team to be out after the round robin, the supporters, media, sponsors etc. It is sad but I think organisers and FIFA always try to guarantee as much as they can that big drawing cards are given every chance to stay in the comp. Am sure (almost ;) ) that Blatter and Platini want Italy and England to qualify for the sake of the comp. Same with other big names. So yes, I agree that they did probably do their best to ensure a team like france wasn't drawn against 2 other big names but in my mind it was as much in France's interest than in other big names' interest. tbh I have seen this kind of 'manipulation' in other sports too (rugby big names play every 7 days while minnows have cr**py schedules). As an aside, how do you fancy your chances at the WC? Italy are slow starters, Uruguay aren't world beaters so I reckon you're a chance (as much as us with 23 egos/ blokes who can snap or go on strike if the food isn't fresh enough or if the French journos are not asking 'the right' questions). Having said that, yes, I don't mind our group...

It depends which date is used for the FIFA rankings. On the date of the Draw, Russia was the lowest ranked UEFA nation, Bosnia-Herzigovina was 2nd lowest.

So theoretically Italy should be in Group E with Switzerland, Ecuador and Honduras, while France should be in Group D with Uruguay, England and Costa Rica. Amazing how a late change can make a difference. We all wonder why the late change?

Spot on HP... all the media was saying France as the lowest ranked team would be in Pot 2. In the days before the draw, suddenly it was different.

I think Belgium were rightly seeded on merit, let's not forget that they were (I think) the first European team to qualify and did from a pretty strong group. I will agree that I'm nonplussed at Switzerland's seeding though, that just looks to be the result of some very fortuitous scheduling (or non-scheduling) of friendlies. And remind me, Sepp Blatter is from where...? What concerned me about the draw was that the usual practice of putting the 9th ranked European team into [pot 2] was dropped in favour of a nine team Euro pot and a random team going in instead (Italy). Any coincidence that the worst-ranked European team was France? And remind me again, Michel Platini is from where...? And with the teams they were drawn against, the French will have to be at their most self-destructive to not get out of that group.

"FIFA’s rankings need to be reviewed. There needs to be a greater emphasis on teams that have qualified for tournaments over a four year period, and how those teams have fared in those tournaments." This is exactly how the system works - they use results over a 4 year period, but the weighting depreciates with time. Fifa clearly explains the Ranking Prosess: http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/procedureandschedule/menprocedure/index.html . Additionally, matches are weighted by the importance of the contest: friendlies attract a multiple of x1, qualifiers x2.5, World Cup tournament x4. If anyone can formulate a better ranking system, they should copyright the work and sell it to FIFA.

I think you're being a little harsh on Chile there, they're one of the strongest South American teams and should be more than a match for the Netherlands, maybe even Spain on their day. I reckon that had they been in any other group they'd be among the favourites to get to the knock-out stages. I don't think anyone in Spain or the Netherlands will be underestimating them, nor expecting an easy ride out of the group.