World Cup seeding punishes France

After weeks of speculation, the World Cup seeds have been determined and FIFA have used the shortest route with France as the biggest losers. Readers of SPAOTP will know that in the past FIFA have used a baffling array of criteria to decide which team gets those coveted places as the top dog in each group. However, on this occasion, the powers that be have chosen to use the most straightforward methodology possible and handed the seeding to the top seven teams in the official FIFA Rankings plus the hosts South Africa. The seeds for the World Cup 2010 are as follows

South Africa
Brazil
Spain
Netherlands
Italy
Germany
Argentina
England

The main bone of contention is surely the absence of France who many (including us) believed would be seeded ahead of the Dutch. Our reasoning for this is based on the French performance in prior World Cups plus their overall rankings, and perhaps a little bit of fairy dust.

However, Raymond Domenech's men must now take the bus to the second round with the rest of the slobs. We here at SPAOTP are pretty convinced that by not seeding them, FIFA are punishing France for Thierry Henry's handball during the World Cup Qualifying Play-Off against Ireland. Why? Well because if you look at the ranking for November you'll find that France are in the top seven teams. FIFA however have chosen to use October's rankings instead.

Of course, had they gone with November's ranking they would have had to have seeded Portugal in addition to France. Even Sepp Blatter might have baulked at the idea of seeding two teams that failed to win their qualification groups. However, we suspect that that is not the point and FIFA have censured the French for cheating and hopefully mollified the Irish in order to avoid another war in Europe. We do not expect France to kick up too much fuss.

The glorious irony is that FIFA, by choosing the most straightforward path, still managed to inject an armful of intrigue and machination. Symptomatic of any arbitrary system.

And remember, this is just for the seeds. Imagine the hilarity to come on Friday when the Draw is made. Gotta love the World Cup.

SPAOTP's Advent Calendar: Day 2

It's Day 2 of our Advent Calendar and today, in a nod towards last year's 'Twelve Graphs of Christmas' series, we bring you a graph showing the number of hat-tricks scored in the Premier League since its inception.

As you can see, there have already been seven hat-tricks scored this season (up to December 2nd 2009*) and strangely the same teams keep cropping up - Hull twice, Liverpool twice, Portsmouth twice, Tottenham three times (and Defoe twice), Burnley twice, Wigan twice... definitely a pattern emerging if you ask us...



Hat-tricks so far during 2009/10 Premier League season:

1) Jermain Defoe, Spurs (v Hull City, 1-5)
2) Yossi Benayoun, Liverpool (v Burnley, 4-0)
3) Robbie Keane, Spurs (4 v Burnley, 5-0)
4) Fernando Torres, Liverpool (v Hull, 6-1)
5) Aruna Dindane, Portsmouth (v Wigan, 4-0)
6) Jermain Defoe, Spurs (5 vWigan, 9-1)
7) Wayne Rooney, Man United (v Portsmouth, 1-4)

SPAOTP's Advent Calendar: Day 1

'Tis the season to be jolly, some say, while others even add a frivolous 'fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la' to boot. Here at SPAOTP, we're inclined to agree, which is why this Christmas we're bringing you our very own Advent Calendar.

Each day from now until December 24th, you can find something different to amuse, educate and entertain you right up to the big day. Think of it as a virtual online advent calendar which doesn't actually have any doors to open as such but which is mildly pleasing nonetheless.

If our advent calendar did have some doors to open, however, we'd be opening the first one today so let's begin with a Caption Competition to get the (snow)ball rolling.

Simply inspect the picture below, leave us a comment with your suggested caption and sit back while the rest of the world laughs as they try to come up with something better.

And don't forget there'll be something different to get your teeth into every day on the SPAOTP Advent Calendar, so be sure to check back regularly to get your fill...

Sound Of Football Episode 17 - (Not) The World Cup Draw

Join us as we bring you a special edition of the Sound Of Football Podcast. This week we performed a real time mock-up of the World Cup Draw according to how we think FIFA will organise it.

Graham has put a lot of thought into how he thinks FIFA will seed the teams and we believe our preview draw will offer an exciting glimpse into what to expect on Friday when the real draw happens.

We came up with some fascinating results so why not find out who your country could be facing next summer in the World Cup. The 33rd team has not been included.

You can listen by clicking here. Or if you right click on that link, you can download the MP3. Alternatively, you can subscribe via the your reader of choice or via our iTunes feed.

Please leave us a comment and let us know what you think. You can do so on the comments section below or on our Facebook Fanpage.