Swiss get seeding for WCup, Italy misses out
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Switzerland will be among the eight seeded teams at the World Cup draw in December after it leapt to seventh in the latest FIFA rankings announced yesterday, while Italy was edged out.
Spain, Argentina, Germany, Colombia, Belgium and host Brazil will also be seeded, as will Uruguay, if it beats Jordan in a two-leg playoff next month.
If Uruguay does not qualify, the Netherlands, joint eighth with Italy in the rankings, will take their place among the seeds.
FIFA previously ruled that Brazil (ranked 11th yesterday) plus the top seven ranked teams would be seeded for the draw at the Costa da Sauipe tropical beach resort on December 6.
Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Ukraine will be the seeded teams in next Monday’s draw for the European zone playoff round, which also features France, Iceland, Sweden and Romania.
The Swiss, who completed their World Cup qualifying group unbeaten to reach the finals for the third time in a row, leapt seven places thanks to their wins over Albania and Slovenia this month.
Paid dearly
Italy had been fourth but paid dearly for drawing 2-2 at home to Armenia on Tuesday.
FIFA has said that second, third and fourth seeds would be determined later. “The remaining pots will be based on geographic and sporting criteria,” it said in Berne.
There is likely to be more controversy over the complicated system used to calculate the rankings especially as Switzerland had arguably the easiest path to the World Cup of any team. It faced Iceland, Slovenia, Albania, Cyprus and Norway in a group which saw Iceland finish second.
FIFA said on Wednesday that France had been “in contact” over the seeding system for the playoff round and had been told the rules could not be changed during the course of the competition.
Ivory Coast, which beat Senegal 3-1 in the first leg of a playoff last weekend, is the best of Africa at No. 17.
Japan leads Asia, despite dropping two to No. 44. The other Asian teams at the World Cup are Iran (No. 49), South Korea (No. 56) and Australia (No. 57).
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