The Football Thread - 17/18 Season

[HomokHarcos]

poklane said:

Ka-pi96 said:

heh, that hasn't really changed much though if there can still be no more than 1 team per confederation (except Europe). If anything that just makes the draw itself a much more complex affair. Can't help but feel it also makes it easier to rig, but FIFA would never do anything like that...

Like the above poster said, it means that from now on countries from certain confederations can face each other in the Group stages. At the 2014 World Cup for example countries from Asia and North America couldn't face each other in the Group Stages because all 8 of them were in the same pot for the draw. 

However, I think with this now being a thing it's time to change how the FIFA rankings are calculated. Poland is 6th, Switzerland is 7th, Peru is 12th, Wales is 13th, Northern Ireland is 20th... Like, how the fuck did those countries end up there?

I hope this will make the groups more even. I thought it was pretty harsh that in 2006 Cote d'Ivoire, who were probably the best African team at the time, had a much tougher draw than the crap Togolese team.

In 2014 the draw seemed very uneven, with 3 very tough groups: Group B (Netherlands, Chile, Spain, Australia), D (Costa Rica, Uruguay, Italy, England) and G (Germany, United States, Portugal, Ghana).

And 3 noticeably weaker ones: C (Colombia, Greece, Cote d'Ivoire, Japan), E (France, Switzerland, Ecuador, Honduras) and H (Belgium, Algeria, Russia, Korea).

ELO rankings would be great, but FIFA seem so stubborn in keeping the current system, it always seems closer to the actual quality.