304 replies to this topic

[Rafa]

[gotosy]

A big draw card

From its unique coastal beauty to its eclectic mix of cultures and history, Cape Town, affectionately known as 'The Mother City', is a holiday destination of daytime adventures and nighttime indulgences. Renowned for its rugged coastline, pristine winelands, natural wonders and thriving nightlife, the city offer visitors a unique and world-class holiday experience. In fact, Cape Town has a longstanding reputation for both foreigners and South Africans alike as the city to spend summer in. Yet even by Cape Town's holiday standards, 4 December 2009 is set to be a summer's day to rival all those past when the FIFA World Cup Draw comes to town.

The Final Draw
It is on that date, at 7pm local time, that the world will turns its attention to the Mother City like never before. The 2010 FIFA World Cup™ final draw show will be broadcast from the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) to millions of viewers across the globe. Many high-profile visitors from all corners of the world will attend the event itself. Celebrities, sports stars, world leaders and dignitaries will sit amongst the audience, eager to hear the draw results.

South Africa's FIFA World Cup narrative dates back some time, but from a football perspective it is the draw itself that will create the canvas on which the 2010 FIFA World Cup story will be written. Once the groups and match orders are revealed, the fates of the world's top 32 teams will be sketched out. Fixtures will be decided, opponents known and fans more desperate than ever for the arrival of 11 June 2010.

The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC)
Situated along Cape Town's foreshore with Table Mountain looming behind it sleek glass surface, the Cape Town International Convention Centre has become an elegant feature of the city's landscape in its short lifespan.

The venue itself offers a state-of-the-art setting. A three-storey gallery stretches the length of the Convention Centre, smoothly linking up the various venues on offer. There is an 11,200m² column-free exhibition space; two state-of-the-art auditoriums, which conjointly can accommodate over 2000 guests; an extensive ballroom with magnificent views and several meetings rooms, suites, dining areas, conservatories and landings. Adjoining the CTICC is the impressive Western Grand Hotel; visitors can also choose form a number of other excellent nearby hotels.

The CTICC has quickly become a favourite destination for many global summits, trade events and music and arts festivals and is located close to many of Cape Town major attractions. It is a short walk from the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, while a quick cab ride will get you to everywhere from Cape Town's beaches to the base of Table Mountain.

Live on FIFA.com
FIFA.com will have extensive coverage of the Final Draw, including eye-witness stories, interviews and features. In a similar vein to the extremely popular EMIRATES MatchCast used for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, there will also be a live DrawCast on FIFA.com. Using the DrawCast, users will be able to follow live commentary and also interact through Fanchat as the drama begins to unfold.

http://www.fifa.com/...draw/index.html

[Rafa]

Since 1998 FIFA have employed constraints for the draw which ensure that no more than two European teams are placed in the same group, and equally that no group contains more than one team from any other confederation.



The seedings have been calculated using a formula based on performances at previous World Cups as well as taking into account the FIFA World Rankings.



The seedings for the 2006 World Cup were decided based on each nation’s performance at the past two World Cups, as well as their FIFA World Rankings over the previous three years.



The following information is all based on this very seeding formula which FIFA used for the 2006 World Cup.



FIFA will incorporate the FIFA World Rankings for November, which are released tomorrow, in their calculations but the October rankings have been used here – there will be minor changes in the new rankings tomorrow but nothing significant enough to affect the below as long as the 2006 method is still used.



South Africa are automatically seeded and placed in Group A, to ensure that they play the opening game, as hosts of the tournament.



The other seeds are the seven highest placed teams based on the criteria outlaid above.



These seven teams are Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, France and Argentina. All seven were also top seeds at the 2006 World Cup where they were joined by Mexico, whereas South Africa join them this time.



Portugal and the Netherlands just miss out, the former in particular coming close to edging out Raymond Domenech’s France.


The second pot consists of the remaining eight European nations who have qualified. They make up their own pot so that no group will contain will contain more than two teams from Europe.



Portugal and the Netherlands are joined in this pot by Switzerland, Slovenia, Greece, Denmark, Serbia and Slovakia. Any of these teams can be drawn into any group.



The third and fourth pots will divide the remaining qualifiers from the CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, African, Asia and Oceania regions.



Africa has five qualifiers and is paired with the three qualifiers from the CONMEBOL region to make a group of eight. Asia (four teams), CONCACAF (three remaining teams) and Oceania (one team) make up the final group of eight.


*Note the three CONEMBOL or CONCACAF teams could be in either pot, depending on how FIFA decide to organise the draw.



All of this leaves the pots for the World Cup draw looking as below:

(*Note: Pot 1 contains the seeded teams, thereafter Pots 2-4 are in no order of relative strength, i.e. Pot 2 is not a higher seed than Pot 4.)



Pot 1: South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, France, Argentina



Pot 2: Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia, Greece, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia



Pot 3: Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Algeria



Pot 4: South Korea, Japan, Australia, North Korea, Mexico, USA, Honduras, New Zealand

[faster]

I would think to benefit the South Africans, CONCACAF will be with the African teams, not South America. We all know the draw is going to be fixed three ways from Sunday to make sure the hosts get to the final 16. Slovenia, New Zealand and Honduras welcome to the crocked group.

Edited by Faster, 19 November 2009 - 08:02 AM.

[Feheva]

I'm just curious to see which one will be the "Death group".

Imagine: Brazil, Netherlands, Paraguay and Mexico.
Ouch!

[fox334]

Well, if the pots above are correct, the toughest possible group would be:
-Brazil (1)
-Netherlands (3)
-United States (11)
-Cameroon (14)

And the easiest possible group would be:
-South Africa (85)
-Slovenia (49)
-North Korea (91)
-Ghana (38) or Uruguay (25), depending on wetter or not FIFA will allow two African teams in group A

[Feheva]

fox334, on Nov 19 2009, 12:10 PM, said:

Well, if the pots above are correct, the toughest possible group would be:
-Brazil (1)
-Netherlands (3)
-United States (11)
-Cameroon (14)

And the easiest possible group would be:
-South Africa (85)
-Slovenia (49)
-North Korea (91)
-Ghana (38) or Uruguay (25), depending on wetter or not FIFA will allow two African teams in group A

The FIFA's ranking means nothing in a world cup... But I think we all agree that whichever group Netherlands or Portugal goes (exeption to the SA group), it will be a tough one.

[Rafa]

I don't think South Africa deserves an easy group. I doubt we could even beat Honduras/ NZ

[aluz]

Mo,

Your explanation misses one pot where they place the position of the teams. That pot is the one used to control the group positions. The separation between UEFA, Conmebol/CAF and Others is aimed at getting the groups leveled, avoiding the creation of Groups of Death.

So every time a team is drawn, another ball is drawn from a different pot with its group position, that will determine the order and locations where it will play. This pot is filled in several times to avoid the crossing of different confederations. Its first use will be to select the groups of the seven seeded teams, since South Africa is already A1. Maybe Italy will also be forced to a specific draw.

[Rafa]

Its from an article. As in Leipzig, additional pots will be used to ensure that teams from the same continent avoid each other where possible