Fans of sporting clichés may well have to find a new term for the “group of death“ by the time the draw for Euro 2008 has been made, a week on Sunday in Lucerne. Group of mayhem, anyone?
If Germany and the Netherlands seemed far from eager to clinch a place as top seeds when they played their final matches on Wednesday it’s easy to understand why.
Tournament co-hosts Switzerland and Austria and surprise defending champions Greece already had places as number one seeds, meaning the fourth team at the top table (the Dutch as it turns out) could face opponents like Italy (from pot 2), Germany (in pot 3) and/or France (in pot four) in the group phase of the competition.
Overall, the situation looks like this:
Pot 1: Switzerland (hosts), Austria (hosts), Greece (holders), Netherlands
Pot 2: Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden
Pot 3: Romania, Germany, Portugal, Spain
Pot 4: Poland, France, Turkey, Russia
If you’re wondering why France, the beaten World Cup finalists, are down in the fourth pot, it’s due to UEFA’s decision to base the seedings solely on qualifying campaigns for the last World Cup and Euro 2008. FIFA’s rankings, by contrast, work on a rolling four-year basis and include both friendly and competitive matches (with greater weighting given to the latter).
A UEFA official I spoke to earlier this week suggested there was something egalitarian or even romantic about the prospect of the bigger teams meeting one another in the group phase. If the big teams get drawn together, it gives the smaller teams a better chance and ‘evens up the playing field’.
Maybe so, but do UEFA really want to have not just the chance but the certain guarantee that two top teams will crash out before the quarter-finals simply because they have been drawn against two other big sides?
If they are truly not bothered about the effect this would have (both in sporting and commercial terms) then why don’t UEFA simply abandon the idea of having seeded teams and hold a completely random draw? Come to think of it, when you look at the pots for Euro 2008 it almost seems like they have.
Mark Ledsom reports on sport for Reuters from Switzerland and Austria
FILE PHOTO: The European Championship trophy on display at the draw for Euro 2000.
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[…] as Mark Ledsom from the Reuters Soccer Blog suggested, looking at the set up of each pot, they could have just as […]
- Posted by Euro 2008: Pick your deadliest Groups of Death - International - The Offside - German Football League BlogI can see why they don’t want a free draw - it would be harder to fiddle! Seriously though, I think yiou need to reward the group winners/consistent teams from qualifying with the status of seeds to ensure teams keep playing and competing for the top spot. If two teams were annihlating the rest of the group and always going to qualify (bit like the Czech, Germany group) you need to make sure that they have something to fight for in the last few meaningless games - like seedings for the finals and the next qualifying draw.
- Posted by Gambling Man Ufan