Playoffs draw rigged?

Oswald Osbourne

I've always wanted to give UEFA/FIFA the benefit of the doubt but I'm starting to believe that these playoff draws are systematically rigged to help the big nations qualify.

Before todays draw I looked at the 10 teams in the pot namely : Slovenia, Holand, Norway, Lativa, Scotland, Spain, Turkey, Croatia, Wales, Russia and for fun divided them into two groups of what I reckoned were the 5 stronger teams and the 5 weaker teams, namely ....

Strong = Holland, Spain, Turkey, Croatia, Russia

Weak = Slovenia, Norway, Lativa, Scotland, Wales,

And what do you know! Sure enough NONE of my 5 'Strong' picks got drawn against each other, and likewise none of the 5 weak picks got drawn against each other either! What are the odds of that? Just coincidence I suppose?

But if you think I'm mad and that its just all coincidence then consider also the WC 2002 playoff parings :

Ireland v Iran (team with BEST 2nd place finish in Europe against the only team from Asia)
Romania (QF Euro2000) v Slovenia (4th in group Euro 2000)
Turkey (QF Euro 2000) v Austria (DNQ Euro 2000)
Germany (4th group stage 2000) v Ukraine (DNQ Euro 2000)
Czech (3rd in group stage 2000) v Belgium (DNQ - hosts)

To break that down Ireland (the team with the best runner-up record in their qualifying group got a relatively sweet draw against Iran. The 2 teams that reached the Quarter finals of Euro2000 were drawn against teams that didn't even qualify for Euro2000 or who did badly in a weak group (Slovenia). The two other Euro 2000 group stage teams (Germany/Czech) were drawn against teams that 'technically' didn't qualify either and it could be argued from Belgiums performances AT HOME in Euro 2000 that they probably wouldn't have qualified anyway! You could again argue that Germanys shambolic Euro 2000 would technically make them a 'weaker' team by my rational but I think we all accept that that was a just blip on their impressive scorecard - and anyway a major championship without the Germans would have been unthinkable!

And if you're thinking to yourself 'even if it was rigged then how could they possibly achieve this anyway?' Good question but I came up with one simple method that could be employed to distinguish the 'strong' teams from the 'weak' and that is to simply 'heat' the five plastic balls of the stronger teams shortly prior to the draw.
That way when the drawpicker picks up a ball he won't know which exact team he has in his hand but he will at least know if it is a strong or weak team and can then act accordingly.

So is it coincidence that all 10 of these pairings more or less suited the status quo?

ciano

I have to admit when I first saw the draw this morning my first thoughts were that it did indeed look a bit dodgy. All the "big" teams got paired against the "weaker" teams! Its a bit depressing really.

IgnatiusJRiley

Agreed

BaZmO*

Indeed, it is all about "Hot Balls" and "Cold Balls".

I remember it always being a customary yet unpublicised method of insuring that potentially fractious teams avoid each other. But whereas in those days of yore the reasoning behind the “Hot Balls” was to avoid political disasters between feuding countries, I would imagine the reasons nowadays would be of a purely financial one!! If indeed it is fixed, but it does make you wonder.

B.

therecklessone

Sky Sports News mentioned an article in The Daily Record today, where Dick Advocat said he'd love to draw Scotland...thats funny, isn't it?;)

woosaysdan

id love to see the "weaker" teamshammer the "stronger" team!!! it probably wont happen but it would be some kick in the face to UEFA

Sposs

It's A disgrace there should be an Investigation - Mark Lawernce said the exact same thing before the draw said there wasn't a hope of Holland drawing Spain etc , he said uefa's sponsors want the best teams at the tournament simply as that.

Dustaz

I dont think theres any problem with wanting the best teams in the competitions, otherwise why have qualifiers?

Nearly every sport is seeded nowadays, so the only bit of intrigue is whether UEFA lied about this being unseeded.

smemon

ive always thought that too, too big a coincidence. mind you if holland and spain and turkey werent in portugal it would be a pretty low profile tournament.

nice to see the dutch back in competitons, they always add colour and excitement. (i know there not not there yet but come on, scotland!) i'll be supporting them.

mike65

I take a world weary view of this sort of thing - the minnows
are poor box-office and in the play-offs they'll get thier chance to shine and cause an upset - unlikely as that'll be. Then the big-boys can get on with the main event next summer.

Mike.

Imposter

Originally posted by mike65
I take a world weary view of this sort of thing - the minnows
are poor box-office and in the play-offs they'll get thier chance to shine and cause an upset - unlikely as that'll be. Then the big-boys can get on with the main event next summer.

These minnows are never going to get any bigger if that's the attitude. Surely it's Holland, Spain and Turkey's own fault that they didn't automatically qualify and not the 'minnows'.

Also if Ireland had finished second they probably would have been looked on favourably as there's a huge fan base there as can be seen with the follow your team ticket thingee. Football has nothing to do with it - money does.

DapperGent

I think it's a bit dodgy but I think UEFA would prefer Scotland getting through instead of Croatia and also the Croatia - Slovenia match looks like it could turn out very grumpy altogether which is something they would try to avoid.

I dunno maybe they allowed that stuff to let Spain, Holland and Turkey through. Or maybe we're all just paranoid.

Did they make the draw themselves or was their guest celebs? The lads picking the balls out themselves always makes me suspicious. Did they have an independant observer from Stokes, Kennedy, Crowley?

jongore

Your basing this on your assumption of who are the better teams. In my opinion Norway are better then Russia or Croatia.

If there was any foul play or rigging of draws it wouldn't stay secret for long as it'd take quite a few people being involved and one would be bound to blow the whistle.

Also WC 2002 playoffs were seeded so it's not suprising that the pairings ended up that way.:D

By the way, have you seen Elvis yet?

knobbles

Originally posted by jongore

Also WC 2002 playoffs were seeded so it's not suprising that the pairings ended up that way

They weren't seeded. The pairings were decided a couple of months before the groups finished...just before irelands 2nd last game against holland actually. So when we beat them we knew we'd get an asian team in the play-off as runner-up.
...all the more suss seeing as our group had two of Europes strongest teams Holland and Portugal, and one would have to face a play-off...of course we had other ideas


2004 - Spain, Holland and Turkey avoid each other

2002 - group with Holland & Portugal plays asia runner-up

and I thought the Euro 2000 play-off was suss...again there was debate about seeding and they chose not to but again the strongest teams avoided each other...
Denmark - Israel
England Scotland
Ukraine - Slovenia ...Ukraine looked great 4 years ago but were shocked here

Verdict: Rigged

Bateman

Definitely rigged. I don't know why they don't just come out and seed them, it could be easily justified by referring to the FIFA rankings.