France may benefit as FIFA changes WCup draw
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France was perhaps the biggest beneficiary when FIFA on Tuesday changed its procedure for the World Cup draw, to be held tomorrow, as the team now has better odds of avoiding Brazil and Argentina.
As the lowest-ranked of nine unseeded European qualifiers, France was expected to go in the Africa-dominated draw pot — meaning it could not be placed in the same group as a top-seeded European team.
But instead of following its format from the 2006 World Cup, FIFA decided all nine European teams will enter an open ballot which starts the draw ceremony tomorrow.
That team selected will effectively enter Pot 2 alongside the five African teams, plus Chile and Ecuador.
France could yet face the top South Americans but now also has the chance of drawing seeded Switzerland or Belgium.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the decision followed talks with confederation presidents, including UEFA’s French president Michel Platini. However, Blatter sidestepped a question asking him to explain a procedure that seemingly ignored FIFA’s own precedent and favored France.
“Let us (hold the) draw and not let us speak of teams,” Blatter said.
FIFA traditionally tries to create pots based on geography, so groups will include teams from up to four different continents and avoiding scenarios where three European teams get grouped together. For the 2006 tournament — the last time there were nine unseeded European teams — Serbia and Montenegro was the lowest-ranked team from the continent. FIFA put it in a separate pot, and Serbia and Montenegro found itself in the toughest group: with Argentina, Netherlands and Ivory Coast.
The eight top-ranked teams in Pot 1 also include Colombia, Uruguay, Germany and Spain. The five African teams in Pot 2 are Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria, while Pot 3 includes the teams from the Asian and CONCACAF regions — Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and the United States.
Also, FIFA’s World Cup organizing committee declined to switch early kickoff times in tropical cities despite concerns by the international players’ union about the heat.
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