Lakenheath Old Boys

We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Switzerland gets seeded for Brazil '14, England doesn't. Here's why:

This is a pretty fascinating analysis that explains why the Swiss have England's seeded position for next year's finals. And what should be to no-one's surprise, it's a cock-up by the FA that's to blame. Again. Here's the link. Click it!

4 Comments:

Blogger The Blue Devil said...

Bizarre - but my response is: "Can we Switzerland's group please? If we were to get, for example, a group that looked like Switzerland, England, Ecuador and Australia, I think we're in the second round.

11:27 AM  
Blogger gooner71 said...

Agreed. But we're not likely to get that are we? We'll get a Germany or Spain, a Ghana and a Costa Rica, and struggle to get out of the group. I can't believe that the geniuses at the FA fitted us up this way when England is relying on older stars, and cutting and changing the guys in for the future. To say nothing of the bloody injuries and recusals. And why doesn't Woy know that throwing on 4 subs on late in a seemingly unimportant friendly where we throw away a lead can come back to haunt us. Is the FA and the England management team incompetent or stupid or both?

11:46 AM  
Blogger gooner71 said...

And then look, today the FA announced 3 friendlies, one against Uruguay, another against Germany, and a third against Denmark. Fortunately, the Uruguayans will have to cancel as they face Transcontinental travel to and from Amman to cement their place next summer. We'd better start building a winning mentality if we're not going to rope in duffers for these money spinners.

1:21 PM  
Blogger manunitedrules said...

I have a degree in Statistics and don't understand the criteria. Where do they get those weird scores for draws and wins in friendlies? I get that FIFA wants teams t take friendlies seriously, but still? The FA does deserve to be blamed because I am sure they were given the information by FIFA regarding the points needed to get a seeded ranking and the criteria used. However, the system is really flawed and is designed to suit teams like Switzerland, Blatter's home country. I am sure he gave them inside info. They have had an easy qualifying group the past several tournaments. They played the correct number of friendlies against the teams needed to earn them the points. Surely Herr Blatter knew how to aid the Swiss. Does anyone really believe that they are one of the best teams in the world. I agree with Gooner that England could get a group of death and they could be knocked out in the group stages. I think Croatia will be seeded too if they win their playoff. It's a really corrupt flawed system.

10:02 PM  

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