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Yikes - some interesting groups...

- Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia

- Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon

- Uruguay, Italy, England, Costa Rica

- Germany, Portugal, USA, Ghana

I'd imagine Chile in particular will be annoyed that Pots 1 and 4 yielded Spain and Netherlands, while Uruguay can rightly have cause to grumble about "Potgate"

Ivory Coast, on the other hand, finally caught a reasonable break!

Germany, Portugal, USA, Ghana sounds like the Group of Death this time around.

Glenn E. wrote:Germany, Portugal, USA, Ghana sounds like the Group of Death this time around.

Hmmm...maybe from a European perspective it is different, but i don't think that one particularly stands out above the others. But coming from Pot 3, it was always going to be difficult for USA to avoid a hard draw. Be thankful it was Australia that got Spain, Netherlands and Chile!

Germany will be Germany, so it is one from three. I think Portugal will have huge support in Brazil and probably have the edge on the USA anyway so I think it's an easy Germany & Portugal outcome from that group.

RAYC wrote:"Potgate"

Also see the BBC article How to kill off World Cup 'group of death', which makes the obvious and utterly sensible proposal.

DRT wrote:Germany will be Germany, so it is one from three. I think Portugal will have huge support in Brazil and probably have the edge on the USA anyway so I think it's an easy Germany & Portugal outcome from that group.

Portugal struggled to qualify from a qualification group that was relatively weak to start with - even with Ronaldo, they do not look like the team they were in the second half of the 2000s. USA have everything to play for.

jdaw1 wrote:

RAYC wrote:"Potgate"

Also see the BBC article How to kill off World Cup 'group of death', which makes the obvious and utterly sensible proposal.

The rationale for the current "pot" system is, i believe, that once you've sorted the top 8, you organise in such a way as to avoid eg: a wholly European group or a group with 3 of the 5 African teams. There is still some merit to this, i think. But you would avoid the scenario where Spain, Netherlands and Chile are drawn together. hmmm!

RAYC wrote:The rationale for the current "pot" system is, i believe, that once you've sorted the top 8, you organise in such a way as to avoid eg: a wholly European group or a group with 3 of the 5 African teams. There is still some merit to this, i think. But you would avoid the scenario where Spain, Netherlands and Chile are drawn together. hmmm!

If one wanted a ‘diverse’ set of teams in the knock-out stages, the ideal would be to have an all-African group guaranteeing that one goes through.

That works less well for Europeans. When I’ve been in Africa folks seem to cheer their own team, or absent same, other African teams. That doesn’t seem to work in Europe: when England are out, we don’t seem to cheer France or Germany. So all-European groups wouldn’t do much good, but equally wouldn’t do much harm.

FIFA have contrived the opposite.

jdaw1 wrote:FIFA have contrived the opposite.

Fifa also contrived that having a World Cup in mid summer on the Arabian peninsular was a good idea. You might be hoping for a level of competence that is somewhat absent.

Possibly also worth considering that a group of death is good for TV ratings. It isn't there by accident.

jdaw1 wrote:If one wanted a ‘diverse’ set of teams in the knock-out stages, the ideal would be to have an all-African group guaranteeing that one goes through

No - they want a diverse set of teams in each of the pools at the league stage (not the knock-out stages).

The African teams have all played each other multiple times in the qualifying rounds just to get to the World Cup and in the biennial Aftican Cup of Nations (likewise the Oceanic teams, Sout American Teams, Asian teams and North American teams). It makes no sense for these teams to go to a world cup once every 4 years only to play each other all over again.

RAYC wrote:The African teams have all played each other multiple times in the qualifying rounds just to get to the World Cup and in the biennial Aftican Cup of Nations (likewise the Oceanic teams, Sout American Teams, Asian teams and North American teams). It makes no sense for these teams to go to a world cup once every 4 years only to play each other all over again.

Very good you have convinced me.