The heat is on as FIFA announces World Cup complicated draw procedure

Somebody was smoking pot when they came up with this system.

Blatter just makes this up as he goes along. Switzerland in the top-ranked seeds?? Oh that's right, Blatter and FIFA are Swiss...

Why are Switzerland in the top seed pot?

It sounds like the system described here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SPIaDGTYgc

I'd like to see Blatter run around for 90 minutes in tropical heat if he thinks it's such a good idea.

Why are Switzerland in the top seed pot?

Because they were ranked as one of the top teams when the pots were decided by Fifa's joke of a ranking system. Now that the new rankings are out they have slipped down a bit, so would have been out of the seed pot.

To complicate matters further, the four South American seeds would form a temporary Pot X and the three not drawn against the European team in Pot 2 will return to the main draw.

This doesn't really complicate things further, it just explains how they are going to do it. In other words, they want a Euro team in Pot 2 but want to avoid a situation where there are 3 Euro teams in one group, so they have to create a sub-pot of just South American teams to draw them against.

The draw isn't particularly complicated and it doesn't differ significantly from previous world cups. Switzerland are seeded because they were sufficiently high in Fifa's rankings. Unfortunately some teams (I think Italy and Holland, for example) who might otherwise have hoped to be seeded cocked it up by foolishly scheduling friendly matches against very weak teams, thus bringing down their average ranking. It's an imperfect system but at least it's based on a formula. A few World Cups ago the clowns at Fifa were just deciding the seeds themselves. Given the corrupt nature of the organization, it's probably better to use the formula.

Given the corrupt nature of the organization, it's probably better to use the formula. The world doesn't need a useless formula.

Just hope England get drawn in the same group as Japan so I can stick it to everyone when we thrash them.

I'm commenting here coz somehow I can't comment on the previous news about the World Cup in Brazil. I'm Brazilian currently living in Japan and I must say that the vision that japanese people have from Brazil is completely wrong!! Of course we have rubbery and crime like everywhere else in the world, but it's not like we have a murder everyday, I don't know anyone on my social circle that got murdered, and when Japanese people tell me how safe Japan is, I just laugh at their faces coz I almost don't hear of someone that kill their parents, they kids, boyfriebd killing girlfriend and crazy stalkers kille their victims in Brazil, so yeah, tell me about a dangerous country.

I'm swiss, but support Japan. Please drawn in Japan to our group, would be great to watch playing the Immigrant country vs. the Non-immigrant country... Anyway, it's Brazil who will win the pot in the end.

@davestrousers

Come on, Dave! I'm sure England will try their best. There's no need to poke fun at them when they take a hammering. (But I know the temptation is strong.)

@davestrousers

I wouldn't have faith in England to beat any team. World football is leaving England behind. The result of the Premier League selling out to TV and foreign investors mate.

@Lettie Lec, you might be right that Brazil might be safer than people think BUT a murder rate of somewhere between 22 and 27 per 100,000 people (wiki) compares rather badly with 0.4 per 100,000 in Japan. More than FIFTY times worse, in fact.

And then there's this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23215676