Blatter - Photo Antonio Cruz CCA
The World Cup draw is just a day away, and the seedings have been determined for the draw a day ago. The biggest single sport international tournament in the world, with the eyes of the world focused upon it for a month, and the rules of the draw are set two days before the draw.
Why do FIFA do it? Why would they leave themselves so vulnerable to the suspicion that they simply make up the rules as they go along? And yet, this is where we are - the rules for the tournament seedings have been drawn up once the 32 teams competing have been known. One cannot prove that the seedings are arranged according to which 32 teams have qualified, but it would be put beyond all doubt if a system were put in place a year or more in advance.
As it stands, the rule changes have not changed much. England are in the first pot of seeds - great news if you are English, of course, or an Italian managing them. Not so good if you are France, however, who under old systems for World Cup draws would have been amongst the first seeds, but now find themselves behind the Dutch, who had expected to be the so-called dark (orange) horses of the second pot, creating a difficult group to negotiate.
This comes hot on the heels of Ireland’s play-off against the French. The Irish were less than happy, of course, that the play-offs were seeded, when it had appeared throughout most of qualification that they would not be. It was an argument perhaps lost in the rancour at the actions of Thierry Henry, but it was nonetheless relevant - that Ireland met France in the first place was made significantly more likely by the seeding system.
FIFA is responsible for staging the biggest, and by extension most commercially valuable, tournament in the world. The World Cup will be an impressive affair next year regardless of these failings, but for those who are aware of them they will leave a sour taste. People want to watch a World Cup in which it is felt that every team had as fair a chance as possible of qualifying and winning. The feeling that the rules are made up as we go along will diminish it - not as a spectacle, but as a competition.
How hard would it be to have a little transparency?
