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“In the past the seedings have been determined by a mixture of world rankings and performances in past World Cups but this time the feeling was the October rankings most closely represented the best teams in the tournament.”

Fine but please let us know well in advance (before qualification for 2014 WC starts) what criteria you will use to determine the seeds for 2014 WC Draw. For the 2014 WC don’t use a criteria that will keep Malawi out of the top seeds.

“We made the decision last month that the October rankings would be used because they were fairer – countries who had been involved in the play-offs would have had an unfair advantages because they would have played more games and that affects their rankings.”

Initially, the release date for the November 2009 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking publication was November 11, 2009. FIFA had to postpone the publication release date to November 20, 2009 so the final matches (played on November 14 and 18) could be included in the calculation for November rankings. Why did FIFA postpone the release date for the November 2009 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking publication from 11 November to 20 November if they knew that they would use October rankings? I need to know the exact date FIFA made the decision that the October Rankings would be used. Was it after or before the France/Ireland game? Why didn’t they make a press release soon after the meeting?

Using November Rankings wouldn’t have been fairer because “countries who had been involved in the play-offs would have had an unfair advantages because they would have played more games and that affects their rankings“? What’s fairer about FIFA Rankings? All teams that go further into the competition (e.g. the finals) play more games than the ones that don’t. Also, some teams play more friendlies than other teams. Though more points are awarded for competitive games than for friendlies, some teams make up for the losses in competitive games by playing more friendlies. All competitions that are not on FIFA Calendar are considered friendlies. For example, COSAFA Senior Challenge and CECAFA Senior Challenge. Right now Zambia and Uganda have qualified for the quarter finals of the CECAFA Orange Challenge Cup. Zambia may end up playing 5 games at the competition. Let’s suppose they win all five. Will they not move up on FIFA Rankings? Click here for FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings Calculation Method. Are the rankings calculated based on equal number of games played?

“This is not a case of wanting Holland to be seeded over France, just that the feeling was the October seedings represented the best teams. The system was designed to reward the teams with the best qualifying record.”

Fifa rankings take into account performances in all matches over the last four years so how can October seedings (rankings) represent the best teams at the moment? The system was designed to reward the teams with the best qualifying record?