Have you seen how complicated they have made it.

You would think they were trying to engineer it a certain way.

32 teams. 8 groups, divided into 4 pots of 8. Easy.

Except, FIFA have decided to make one pot of 7 and one pot of 9.

For geographical fairness of course.

Only 2 Europeans allowed to be in the same group if that helps

Well yes, but it doesnt explain why does it?

Teams were supposed to be seeded for a reason. So to get their geographical preference in they throw the seeding out of the window.

Only 8 teams are seeded

The rest are a split into continents

Ah right. That makes more sense then.

I take it the rest is engineered for the very reason I stated earlier then.

Its all too fake for me.

Oh yay, another thread where Dibble sneers at something. Joy of joys.

The full thing is as bent as Tom Daley

Columbia and switzerland in the top 8. Ill bet anyone on here they don't make the quaters.

Belgium are top 8 yet Havnt really beat anyone, they look good on paper but top 8 for a team that hasn't qualified for donkeys seems odd. England and holland not seeded but are both sides hat generally always make the last 8, fuck me holland even made the last final but are now apparently not top 8 material

And only one South American team can be in a group. Only one group will contain 2 European teams. That has been the case for many a world cup.

No it hasn't that's a blatent lie bob


How can 13 teams fit into 8 groups yet only 1 has 2. Did qwerty tell you that?

england are in pot 4 with 7 teams of which one needs to float in to pot 2 to stop pot 1 from being transformed in to pot 3 which has 2 african teams from pot 5 which doesn't exist but neither does africa so now england are in pot X which means if we get brazil we might get italy which means theres a pot 4 slot swapping with a pot 3 on top of pot 5 which IS IN AFRICA

Read that dead fast n your head will explode

I did slowly and it still exploded

It's not that complicated
No more than 1 country from each continent in a group except, Europe , who can have no more than 2
There are 9 non seeded European teams,so one of them at random will be moved from the European section and paired with one of the 4 non-European seeds again at random

and we'll end up with italy brazil and usa.

Or.....

Switzerland
Iran
Algeria

True I don't know why I said that or even what I meant to say

1 South American team is correct though, or it used to be.

Not in Quater next year, Brazil aint it

What has happened is that there are 9 European teams after the 4 top European seeds left in one pot. FIFA originally were going to put the lowest ranked of those 9 into the pot with the Asian group, but that would have been France. So that greasy French c**t Platini phoned his mate Blatter & said he wasnt happy with that as it might mean the Frogs get a hard group, so they came up with this plan to randomly draw 1 of the European teams out of the pot to go in with the Asian group & potentially get a harder group. Its a fix by Blatter & Platini.

Looking at the permutations even if we aren't the 'unlucky' team moved to pot two there are still some potentially very nasty draws

At least Baines bubble burst against Chile and he was shown up as the substandard international defender he is, so he won't make the first team (or fingers crossed the plane)

I think I would rather England got a challenging group. At least then you're guaranteed three decent games rather than watching us play rubbish against three rubbish teams.

You can simulate your own world cup draw using a programme on the guardian website http://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2013/dec/world-cup-draw-2014-create-your-own-draw-interactive

It says it uses a realistic algorithm to predict who will win from the draw. However when I did it had Germany down as finishing bottom of a group containing the USA and Ecuador with the USA reaching the final so the word realistic may not be being used in its accepted sense!

I see they just announeced the world cup ball and its rounder than any other ball again. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Basically everyone knows that France should be the European team to be in the other pot as they qualified by the skin of their teeth. Was anyone surprised that they now have this pre-draw? If it was England wouldnt be the case.

Is it surnames starting with B that you are dead set against?

Tripledecker do you even watch football? Baines has been one of the most consistent players in the PL for the past two seasons and sets up more goals than a standard midfielder does.

After one bad game in how many as well

Apparantly, it's calculated regarding the rankings and geographical location.

I suppose they want to keep the atmosphere quite light hearted, by not having too many derbies.

He's great going fwd but struggles defensively against better teams, and I am sure we will be playing a few of those in the summer

I really want to Luke Shaw involved, though his time may come after the World Cup
I would put, cole, Shaw and Gibbs in front of Baines

Cole was poor in the Germany game.

I doubt Brazil will worry much about Alves and Marcelo's defensive attributes.

I suppose they don't want too many matches like for example, Germany vs. Holland etc.

But the rankings were crazy: England played well, they were only 7th or 8th.

They had a bad run, they were 3rd in the rankings.

Work that one out.

Or Iran v USA

Yeah.

Just like Gillingham v Swindon.

Very similar.

Agree that Cole comes before Baines and Luke Shaw is the future but to put him and Gibbs in front of Baines shows you know bugger all about footy. Baines would walk into any team just happens that he has one of the best and most consistent left backs in the world in front of him.

I think its a case of Europe having more teams than the fact they dont want your so called Derbys, wasnt Poland Vs Germany in the last world cup?

Do you have any opinions of your own or do you just copy and paste from the sun online ?

I suspect we will be doing a lot more defending than Brazil at the World Cup !

Whats the big deal? Whens a left back ever won someone the world cup?

Has baines banged your mrs or summit mr decker?

Dont read the Sun everyone knows I am a Daily Mail follower.

Anyone with half a brain knows that Baines should go to Brazil

Last I looked we had the second best defensive record in the qualifying after Spain and 6 better than Germany.

so it turns out the draw is a fix, or partly a fix.

France were meant to be in pot 2.......as the lowest ranked European team in Pot 4.

But that would guarantee them a very difficult group.

So guess what? Platini gets the rules changed.

There are quality Fifa arent they?

Will be funny as fuck if France get drawn as the team to go into pool 2

Though if they are we could get them Brazil and Mexico which would be painful

Yes compo, Baines would walk into any team in the world apart from Englands!

Bet Spain, Germany, Italy and the likes are looking at us enviously and saying, 'fuck me I wish we had that Leighton Baines' in our team!

Crank!

looks like Baines isn't even Evertons best left back!

Your right like, baines never scores.

Baines will certainly go to rio, he's a good attacking left back and is lethal with a dead ball. Only Ashley cole ahead of him and to be fair he's ahead of most in the entire world.

What? the entire world? You sure about that?

I mean REALLY sure?

Cole is on the decline, Mourinho has preferred a right back at left back in bigger games lately.

Probably because he has a broken toe and isnt back till next year

That comment was toungue in cheek given how well Oviedo has started

But comments claiming baines is a world class full back coveted by countries around the globe is patently fucking ridiculous

Show me 5 other left backs in the world that have been as consistent over the past 2 years, who have assisted and scored more goals then?