2014 World Cup Qualifying Thread

[Panda]

It's only eight months since the last World Cup finished but the qualifying process for 2014 is about to begin.

It's a bit earlier than the last World Cup because the main qualifying draw is going to be held in July, rather than October/November like in previous tournaments.

Because of this, some of the preliminary rounds need to take place earlier than usual so the draw for the first preliminary round in Asia will take place this week. I'll come to that shortly.

FIFA has announced the allocation of places will be the same as the last World Cup so the number of places per confederation is as follows:

Europe: 13 places

South America: 4.5 places

Africa: 5 places

Asia: 4.5 places

CONCACAF: 3.5 places

Oceania: 0.5 places

Hosts (Brazil): 1 place


With the allocations unchanged, the qualifying format will remain the same for most of the confederations though there will be some minor changes here and there. CONCACAF will be having one knockout round and three group stages instead of two knockout rounds and two group stages. Asia is keeping its two knockout rounds, two group stages format but the number of teams in each stage will vary from before. Africa hasn't yet decided its format.



Qualifying in Asia will involve 43 of its 46 teams. Bhutan and Guam haven't entered and Brunei are currently suspended by FIFA. The Philippines and Laos have entered after not taking part last time.

The 43 teams have been seeded based on their performance in the last World Cup. The bottom 16 seeds will take part in the first knockout round. The teams seeded 6-27 receive a bye to the second knockout round. The top five seeds receive a bye to the first group stage.

The seedings are as follows:
1. Japan
2. South Korea
3. Australia
4. North Korea
5. Bahrain

6. Saudi Arabia
7. Iran
8. Qatar
9. Uzbekistan
10. United Arab Emirates
11. Syria
12. Oman
13. Jordan
14. Iraq
15. Singapore
16. China
17. Kuwait
18. Thailand
19. Turkmenistan
20. Lebanon
21. Yemen
22. Tajikistan
23. Hong Kong
24. Indonesia
25. Kyrgyzstan
26. Maldives
27. India

28. Malaysia
29. Afghanistan
29. Cambodia
31. Nepal
32. Bangladesh
33. Sri Lanka
33. Vietnam
35. Mongolia
36. Pakistan
37. Palestine
38. East Timor
39. Macau
40. Taiwan
40. Burma
42. Philippines
42. Laos

The Asian preliminary rounds will take place in June and July.

[Panda]

Draw for the Asian preliminary rounds:

Round 1:

	v
	v
	v
	v
	v
	v
	v
	v

Round 2:

	v	or
	v	or
	v	or
	v
	v	or
	v	or
	v
	v
	v
	v	or
	v
	v	or
	v
	v
	v	or

[Panda]

Draw for the CONCACAF Preliminary Round:

	v
	v
	v
	v
	v

1st legs: June 3rd
2nd legs: June 7th

[suedehead]

Ooh, a Virgin Islands derby

[vastar iner]

0-0 draw, I presume?

[Panda]

May 8, 2011 21:20:40 GMT 1 vastar iner said:

0-0 draw, I presume?

[suedehead]

May 8, 2011 21:20:40 GMT 1 vastar iner said:

0-0 draw, I presume?

Surely not. They'll both be desperate to score.

[Paddy]

I'm going all away wins.

[Elmer]

Wonder why Brunei are suspended. Wasn't aware of anything going on that should warrant this.

[Panda]

May 13, 2011 11:42:29 GMT 1 Elmer said:

Wonder why Brunei are suspended. Wasn't aware of anything going on that should warrant this.

I think it's to do with government interference with the FA. That tends to be the reason for most suspensions by FIFA.

[Panda]

For what it's worth, these are the seedings for the CONCACAF section.

The bottom 10 are in the preliminary round, the teams seeded 7-25 receive a bye to the first group stage and the top 6 seeds receive a bye to the second group stage.

The seedings are based on the March FIFA World Rankings.

1. United States
2. Mexico
3. Honduras
4. Jamaica
5. Costa Rica
6. Cuba

7. Panama
8. Canada
9. El Salvador
10. Grenada
11. Trinidad & Tobago
12. Haiti
13. Antigua & Barbuda
14. Guyana
15. Suriname
16. St. Kitts & Nevis
17. Guatemala
18. Dominica
19. Puerto Rico
20. Barbados
21. Curacao
22. St. Vincent & The Grenadines
23. Cayman Islands
24. Nicaragua
25. Bermuda

26. Belize
27. Dominican Republic
28. British Virgin Islands
29. St. Lucia
30. Turks & Caicos Islands
31. Bahamas
32. US Virgin Islands
33. Aruba
34. Anguilla
35. Montserrat

[frag]

Loving the tabs (that's not something you expect an Oxford graduate to say )

Those CONCACAF games will be the first qualifying matches. Here's when all the confederations start:

CONCACAF: Fri 3 June
Asia: Wed 29- Thu 30 June
Oceania: Sat 27 August
South America: TBC, but likely to be October 2011
UEFA: August 2012 (draw will take place on 31 July 2011)
Africa: TBC, but the draw will take place on 31 July 2011

[Panda]

Thanks frag! The colours were correct to the best of my knowledge when I made them but some teams have made changes since then. They can be very hard to keep track of, though. I'm going to try and have them as up to date as possible for the main qualifying draw.

Another quick note - in the African section, Mauritania haven't entered, joining Bhutan, Guam and Brunei as FIFA members that will play no part at all.

As it stands, the official number of entrants is 204, though Tuvalu and Kiribati (both non-FIFA members) are due to take part in the Pacific Games, which acts as the first round of qualifying for Oceania.

[Panda]

Another thing worth noting is Sao Tome & Principe not being on the list of non-entrants. If they do take part, they will be playing their first international game(s) since 2003.

They entered the last World Cup but withdrew before playing their preliminary round tie.

[Panda]

A bit of reshuffling for the CONCACAF preliminary dates...

June 5th & 9th:
St. Lucia v Aruba

June 15th & 19th:
Montserrat v Belize (Montserrat's home leg will be played in Trinidad)

July 2nd & 9th:
Turks & Caicos Islands v Bahamas

July 3rd & 10th:
US Virgin Islands v British Virgin Islands

July 8th & 10th:
Dominican Republic v Anguilla (both legs to be played in Dominican Republic)

[Panda]

The format for Africa was confirmed at last week's FIFA Congress and it's a bit of a change from last time.

It will start with a knockout preliminary round featuring the 24 lowest-ranked teams. The 12 winners will join the other 28 teams in a group stage, featuring 10 groups of 4. The 10 group winners will go forward to a final knockout round to determine Africa's 5 qualifiers.

[Panda]

It now looks like the St. Lucia-Aruba tie has been moved back to July. Information is scarce, such is the joke that is CONCACAF.

[Thor]

Jun 4, 2011 20:37:09 GMT 1 Panda said:

The format for Africa was confirmed at last week's FIFA Congress and it's a bit of a change from last time.

It will start with a knockout preliminary round featuring the 24 lowest-ranked teams. The 12 winners will join the other 28 teams in a group stage, featuring 10 groups of 4. The 10 group winners will go forward to a final knockout round to determine Africa's 5 qualifiers.

I misread this as a 10 team final group, which would have been epic... The new system cuts out a lot of games. I'm not sure if it's better or worse.

[Panda]

Jun 7, 2011 11:42:42 GMT 1 Thor said:

Jun 4, 2011 20:37:09 GMT 1 Panda said:

The format for Africa was confirmed at last week's FIFA Congress and it's a bit of a change from last time.

It will start with a knockout preliminary round featuring the 24 lowest-ranked teams. The 12 winners will join the other 28 teams in a group stage, featuring 10 groups of 4. The 10 group winners will go forward to a final knockout round to determine Africa's 5 qualifiers.

I misread this as a 10 team final group, which would have been epic... The new system cuts out a lot of games. I'm not sure if it's better or worse.

I think they've had to reduce the number of games due to them shifting the pattern for Cup of Nations tournaments. There's one next year and then another in 2013, to avoid having them in the same year as World Cups in the future.

Because they won't be able to combine qualifying for 2013 and 2014, they're having separate, shorter qualifying competitions. It looks like qualifying for the 2013 Cup of Nations will be a straight knockout.


For the record, this is the minimum and maximum number of games a team will need to play to qualify from each confederation:

EUROPE
Min: 8
Max: 12

SOUTH AMERICA
Min: 16
Max: 18

AFRICA
Min: 8
Max: 10

ASIA
Min: 14
Max: 22

CONCACAF
Min: 16
Max: 26

OCEANIA:
Min: 8
Max: 14

[Thor]

I'm sure they could have found some way to get down to 15 (or however many they need) before the Nations Cup and then have 3 groups of 5 to fill the world cup spots.