AndyM3000 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Seedings in football are bullshit. They started doing it in the League Cup now too for the first few rounds. Stick everyone in a hat and draw them out, who cares what country they are from. Champions League, World Cup, whatever competition. Would make it a lot better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 I don't care what the criteria is I'm not having that. We've been here It tends to be win your group and win nearly every match you play. Switzerland guilty as charged. If teams don't want them in pot 1 then maybe they should just beat them. Explain Holland then... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Seedings in football are bullshit. They started doing it in the League Cup now too for the first few rounds. Stick everyone in a hat and draw them out, who cares what country they are from. Champions League, World Cup, whatever competition. Would make it a lot better. Don't know you want the best teams getting to the later stages. Once you get rid of the poorer teams and we get down to the knockout stage it gets more interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Holland won every single match in qualifying didn't they? Qualified for euro 2012 (where admittedly they were shite but at leas they were there unlike Swiss) and reached the world cup final last time out. But of course because they didn't play Greenland and Andorra all the time in friendlies they're in pot 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CardiffGreens Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Holland won every single match in qualifying didn't they? Qualified for euro 2012 (where admittedly they were shite but at leas they were there unlike Swiss) and reached the world cup final last time out. But of course because they didn't play Greenland and Andorra all the time in friendlies they're in pot 4. Ironicallly, IIRC it was because the Dutch played a friendly against Indonesia earlier in the year they brought their average ranking point haul down enough to pull them out of the seeded group, whereas I've read somewhere the Swiss FA were loathe to arrange friendlies to preserve their rankings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 If Italy or Holland end up in Switzerland's group, it will make no difference that Switzerland were seeded and that Italy or Holland were not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 It's actually because they did play poor opposition in friendlies (Indonesia and San Marino respectively) that Holland and Italy aren't seeded - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25134584 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Yeah bit of a stupid decision by the Dutch FA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Didn't they play Indonesia as some kind of colonial celebration game or something? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Holland won every single match in qualifying didn't they? Qualified for euro 2012 (where admittedly they were shite but at leas they were there unlike Swiss) and reached the world cup final last time out. But of course because they didn't play Greenland and Andorra all the time in friendlies they're in pot 4. Won 9 and drew the other after we'd qualified. Didn't they play Indonesia as some kind of colonial celebration game or something? Yes, that was it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Netherlands always seem to be in the group of death. 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2012. And their world cup 2010 wasn't a group of death but it was not easy with Denmark, Japan and Cameroon. It's a bout time Netherlands had a nice easy group. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 It would make a welcome change! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 they dont deserve an easy group and nobody does. I hope they get Belgium anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted December 4, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted December 4, 2013 I don't care what the criteria is I'm not having that.We've been here It tends to be win your group and win nearly every match you play. Switzerland guilty as charged. If teams don't want them in pot 1 then maybe they should just beat them. Explain Holland then... You'd have to ask the Dutch FA (or the English FA for that matter ...) about their stupid use of friendlies. I see it has been explained by others above. The system is there. Every FA knows (or should know) what that system is. If an FA can't use it to their advantage then they are stupid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 As BOF says, everyone knows the rules, so there's no point in complaining about them. The Swiss have just been a bit smarter than everyone else. That said, the system is pretty stupid. Italy came in at second place in the previous euros, and have been outseeded by a team who didn't even make it to the competition. If FIFA had any sense, they'd weight it in favour of those teams achieving success in a competitive environment, giving less importance to pointless friendlies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 yeah bit Italy conceded 2 goals to Niklas Bendtner in October which is a valid reason for them not to be seeded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 yeah bit Italy conceded 2 goals to Niklas Bendtner in October which is a valid reason for them not to be seeded I stand corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Holland won every single match in qualifying didn't they? Qualified for euro 2012 (where admittedly they were shite but at leas they were there unlike Swiss) and reached the world cup final last time out. But of course because they didn't play Greenland and Andorra all the time in friendlies they're in pot 4. Holland are an interesting example though. They were really poor in 2012. They lost five times in the calendar year, including all of their Euro 2012 fixtures. I don't think you can gloss over that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Holland won every single match in qualifying didn't they? Qualified for euro 2012 (where admittedly they were shite but at leas they were there unlike Swiss) and reached the world cup final last time out. But of course because they didn't play Greenland and Andorra all the time in friendlies they're in pot 4. Holland are an interesting example though. They were really poor in 2012. They lost five times in the calendar year, including all of their Euro 2012 fixtures. I don't think you can gloss over that. True but they did qualify, Swiss didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 yeah but dont get any points for losing games in tournament. As bad as Ireland were the Dutch were a lot worse in Euro 2012 considering the players they had Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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