Seedings decision still hurting some

"The procedure for the draw for the play-offs in the European zone, scheduled for 19 October in Zurich, [has been] approved. Teams will be seeded on the basis of the next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, which will be published on 16 October."

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Sepp Blatter has been FIFA chief since 1998.

When FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced at the FIFA Executive Committee in September the decision to seed the play-offs into two pots of four teams on the basis of the FIFA rankings, he might have anticipated that he was putting himself in the middle of a controversy that could easily overshadow the excitement of who will meet who when the draw gets underway at FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Monday.

On Friday, it was announced that France, Portugal, Russia and Greece will be seeded in the play-offs to decide the final four European spots at the 2010 World Cup. They were the four highest-ranked of the play-off teams in the FIFA world rankings, meaning they cannot face each other in the two-legged play-offs on Nov. 14 and 18. Instead they will be paired against the four non-seeded teams - Ukraine, Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia.

When FIFA's intentions to make the seeding were published, the Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni didn't waste any time in urging them to reassess its ranking system or face the "death of football," while his goalkeeper Shay Given labelled the decision "disgusting", "crazy" and "totally unfair on the smaller nations".

''Four or five years ago, the big clubs wanted a European League but it was dangerous and they gave up on the idea'', said Trapattoni. ''They thought it would be the death of football. Now, we have a similar situation and it has to change in the future because every country has the right to be the same. This [World Cup] draw must be open. We must give the opportunity to everyone. I thought it was going to be an open draw and in the future, they have to think about the rankings and change the system. But business is business. The big teams command UEFA in the rankings table. At the moment, it is difficult to change but they must.''

The charismatic Italian was backed up by long-time Irish keeper Given who even went as far as suggesting that a FIFA conspiracy could compromise the Irish chances of qualifying for the prestigious tournament. ''There are people high up in delegations, and maybe their countries need a hand to qualify. The rules should be laid out clearly before any ball is kicked and then there's no dark cloud or whatever. It's ridiculous how they can make a decision now when some of the big-name nations are maybe struggling to qualify. It's totally unfair on the smaller nations. It's pretty disgusting, to be honest. To change it at this stage is beyond belief. It's crazy and I don't know how they have got away with it or how the smaller nations like ourselves haven't put up a bigger fight. All the nations should try to kick up a fuss, not just us, because I don't believe it's right.''

Indeed the Irish criticism and protests was backed up by a great part of the international media who went as far as suggesting that there would be commercial interests behind FIFA's decision to seed the draw. And to make matters even worse FIFA bigwig and current 2010 World Cup Organising Committee member Danny Jordaan himself admitted that it was "very, very important" for teams like Portugal to make it to next summer's finals. However, the experienced Danish FIFA referee Claus Bo Larsen still feels that Trapattoni and Given are way off base. Larsen is one of the most respected FIFA referees around, he was in charge of the UEFA Super Cup Final 2008 and is generally applauded for his unpretentious approach to the game.

''I have no idea why Trapattoni and the rest thought that the draw wouldn't be based on seeding,'' Larsen told ESPN Soccernet. ''At the last qualification in 2006, FIFA imposed the same system (Czech Republic, Turkey, and Spain were seeded because they were the three highest placed sides according to the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking for September 2005.)

''Seeding the draw is entirely logical given that the nations were seeded for the qualifying draw and the finals are also seeded. Seeding has been part of international football for a while now not only by FIFA, but also by UEFA to ensure that the best teams end up in the finals. If there were no seeds in the finals, we could risk having England, Argentina, Brazil and Germany in the same group and the World Cup could be finished within a week.

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Defeat to France was Giovanni Trapattoni's first in qualifying with Ireland.

''Comments like this can often be made in the heat of the moment, it only shows the passion and nationalism which a tournament like the World Cup brings along. Of course you always try to do what you can for your country, you give everything and when that's not enough then sometimes you start to blame others for your own failure.

The Danish referee is, however, insistent on not leaving FIFA free of blame. ''Of course a mistake has been made here,'' he says. ''FIFA should of course have informed the parties involved of their intentions to make the seeding much sooner. To avoid this in future, FIFA ought to state the full procedures and rules for all parts of World Cup qualification before the qualification tournament begins.''

It has been suggested that FIFA needed to ensure that the cash would continue to flow into the tournament for some of the sports biggest sportswear companies whose protégés were struggling to qualify, but the Danish ref is sure this is not the reason behind it.

''This is completely ludicrous,'' he concludes. ''It's people with absolutely no sense of what goes on in football that says these things. That is absolutely crazy talk. I have been in this game for so long that I know this is not true.''