*The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

[kaletore11]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

In the European qualifiers, cards are reset before the playoff, obviously that's not the case in Africa.

[Tovarich]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

FIFA rejects the appeal, but then adds the stipulation that they are still reviewing match official's reports, but say they can't find where Bougherra was booked against Mali. Also sounded like they didn't appeal fast enough because it needs to be done within 1 hour of the match being completed.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

Part of one of the stadiums they're building for the World Cup collapsed.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2013/soccer/wires/11/27/2050.ap.soc.brazil.stadium.collapse.0111/index.html

[~LiverpoolRed~]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

^ 3 confirmed dead so far.

[Bruins]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

FIFA rejects the appeal, but then adds the stipulation that they are still reviewing match official's reports, but say they can't find where Bougherra was booked against Mali. Also sounded like they didn't appeal fast enough because it needs to be done within 1 hour of the match being completed.

Huh. Their match report says he was...

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/prelimi...66/report.html

[Tovarich]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

Huh. Their match report says he was...

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/prelimi...66/report.html

Yeah, it all sounds kind of odd. They reject the appeal, but then say they're still investigating, so they know something is up. Hopefully the fact that the appeal wasn't filed within an hour of the match doesn't mean Algeria aren't punished if they should be.

This is their quote "However, Sangare's main complaint was that Bougherra had been booked against Mali in the group phase and Burkina Faso in the first leg - yet football's world governing body found no such evidence."

[OliDegu2008]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

More on the WC stadium collapse if anyone cares to read..

[OliDegu2008]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

More on the WC stadium collapse if anyone cares to read..

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2013/11/28/union-worker-warned-crane-was-on-unstable-ground/3777459/

[ImTellinTim]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

The pots for the draw will be announced tomorrow.

Pot 1 (top eight seeds): Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay
Pot 2: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ecuador
Pot 3: Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras
Pot 4: Bosnia, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, France

Hm, that's weird, Pot 2 has 7 teams and Pot 4 has 9. There will be a pre-draw to move one of the Pot 4 teams to Pot 2.

A couple more notes: There can only be 1 South American team in a group. There can only be 2 European teams in a group (Basically, the Euro team that ends up in Pot 2 cannot draw any of the Euro teams that are in Pot 1)

This is actually in play now: Brazil/Italy/US/Netherlands

[dickey1331]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

This is actually in play now: Brazil/Italy/US/Netherlands

Thats just not even funny.

[fugazi]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

FIFA blows so hard it's absurd...

What is the point of putting forth the effort to qualify in the fashion that the US did, only to be thrown into a pot with virtual also-rans like Mexico?

I don't even have words for how awful this is, from a competition standpoint.

How a side performs in WCQ only matters for European and SA teams...

There is no reward, AT ALL for the top African and CONCACAF Qualifiers.

I understand some effort must be made to ensure that a group is not wholly European or African or whatever...but to do THAT, at the expense of providing REAL INCENTIVE to qualifying simply makes FIFA continue to look like a rather suspicious, certainly unobjective and unfair governing body.

[fugazi]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

Thats just not even funny.

And this should be a shame not just for the US, but for FIFA in general.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

FIFA blows so hard it's absurd...

What is the point of putting forth the effort to qualify in the fashion that the US did, only to be thrown into a pot with virtual also-rans like Mexico?

I don't even have words for how awful this is, from a competition standpoint.

How a side performs in WCQ only matters for European and SA teams...

There is no reward, AT ALL for the top African and CONCACAF Qualifiers.

I understand some effort must be made to ensure that a group is not wholly European or African or whatever...but to do THAT, at the expense of providing REAL INCENTIVE to qualifying simply makes FIFA continue to look like a rather suspicious, certainly unobjective and unfair governing body.

If that lowest ranked Euro team was Iceland, how much you wanna bet they would have just been thrown into Pot 2 without a second thought?

[kaletore11]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

FIFA is a bunch of criminals and douchebags.

[~LiverpoolRed~]

Re: *The Road to Brazil 2014* WC 2014 Qualifying Discussion

It's almost draw time!