World Cup draw for 32 teams to be held in two weeks; Portugal and the Netherlands could create a 'Group of Death'

by ffaa777734 on 2009-11-20 15:40:55

Beijing time, morning of November 19th, the World Cup qualifying playoff came to an end as France, Portugal and other teams secured the final six qualification spots. At 1 a.m. Beijing time on December 5th (7 p.m. local time in South Africa on December 4th), the draw for the 32 teams qualified for the World Cup will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa. The entire draw ceremony will last about 90 minutes, with performances by South African singers and artists interspersed throughout. More than 2,000 guests are expected to attend the draw ceremony, including nearly a thousand media journalists, and over 200 countries will broadcast the event live, setting a new record for the history of World Cup draw broadcasts.

This draw will be hosted by FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke. The 32 teams will be divided into 8 groups, each containing 4 teams, with the top 2 teams from each group advancing to the round of 16 knockout stage. The specific distribution of the 32 teams is: 13 from Europe, 6 from Africa, 5 from South America, 4 from Asia, 3 from Central and North America, and 1 from Oceania. Host nation South Africa has been pre-assigned to position A1 and will be grouped with the top 7 ranked teams as seeded teams, with defending champion Italy potentially occupying position F1. Other teams will be divided into three tiers.

The draw will ensure that there are at most 2 European teams in each group, and no two teams from the same continent will be in the same group, although FIFA has yet to confirm the tiering and draw details. In the previous Germany World Cup draw, the seeded teams were determined based on a comprehensive calculation of the results from the previous three World Cups and the latest world rankings. At that time, there were 14 European teams, 5 of which were listed as seeded teams, another 8 as third-tier teams, so the remaining European team with the lowest overall ranking, Serbia and Montenegro, was separately listed. The fourth tier, consisting of 4 Asian teams and 3 Central and North American teams, had only 7 teams, while the other 8 teams entered the second tier.

If this draw basically follows the rules of the previous one, France will likely replace Mexico, a seeded team from the previous edition, with the other seeded teams being South Africa (host), Italy (defending champion), Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and England. European teams will occupy 5 of the seeded team positions, but the total number of European teams (13) is one less than in the previous edition, so the remaining 8 European teams will fit neatly into the same tier without needing to be separately listed.

The other 16 teams (5 from Africa, 4 from Asia, 3 from South America, 3 from Central and North America, 1 from Oceania) will enter the other two tiers. The tiering plan may be to group Africa with South America (or Central and North America) in one tier, and Asia, Central and North America (or South America), and Oceania in another. In both plans, it's more likely that Africa and South America will be in the same tier because there are also African (South Africa) and South American (Brazil, Argentina) teams in the first tier. If African and South American teams are placed in the second tier, the same-continent avoidance procedure can be initiated when drawing the second tier. If the other plan is adopted, the avoidance procedure must be initiated when drawing the second and fourth tiers.

World Cup Draw Tier Prediction:

Seeded Teams (First Tier): South Africa (Host), Italy (Defending Champion), Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, England, France.

Second Tier: Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay.

Third Tier: Switzerland, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia, Portugal, Netherlands, Greece, Slovenia.

Fourth Tier: South Korea, Japan, North Korea, Australia, Mexico, United States, Honduras, New Zealand.

In the above plan, teams like Portugal and Netherlands in the third tier, Ivory Coast in the second tier, and Australia and the United States in the fourth tier are obviously ones that teams in other tiers would not want to draw. If these teams happen to meet together, it could recreate a "Group of Death" similar to the previous edition's Argentina, Netherlands, Ivory Coast, and Serbia and Montenegro. Teams drawn against host South Africa will be considered lucky.