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Post by Panda on Mar 27, 2011 20:23:05 GMT 1
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.
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Post by Panda on Mar 30, 2011 13:45:14 GMT 1
Draw for the Asian preliminary rounds: Round 1: Round 2:
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Post by Panda on May 8, 2011 17:36:32 GMT 1
Draw for the CONCACAF Preliminary Round: 1st legs: June 3rd 2nd legs: June 7th
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Post by suedehead on May 8, 2011 20:22:26 GMT 1
Ooh, a Virgin Islands derby
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on May 8, 2011 21:20:40 GMT 1
0-0 draw, I presume?
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Post by Panda on May 8, 2011 21:37:46 GMT 1
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Post by suedehead on May 8, 2011 21:53:11 GMT 1
Surely not. They'll both be desperate to score.
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Paddy
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Post by Paddy on May 8, 2011 22:15:28 GMT 1
I'm going all away wins.
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Elmer
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Post by Elmer on May 13, 2011 11:42:29 GMT 1
Wonder why Brunei are suspended. Wasn't aware of anything going on that should warrant this.
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Post by Panda on May 13, 2011 23:57:53 GMT 1
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.
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Post by Panda on May 14, 2011 0:17:59 GMT 1
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
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frag
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Post by frag on May 14, 2011 11:31:35 GMT 1
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
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Post by Panda on May 14, 2011 19:13:35 GMT 1
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.
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Post by Panda on May 15, 2011 1:09:48 GMT 1
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.
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Post by Panda on Jun 2, 2011 21:50:57 GMT 1
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)
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Post by Panda on Jun 4, 2011 20:37:09 GMT 1
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.
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Post by Panda on Jun 5, 2011 1:12:02 GMT 1
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.
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Thor
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Post by Thor on Jun 7, 2011 11:42:42 GMT 1
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.
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Post by Panda on Jun 7, 2011 12:12:58 GMT 1
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
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Thor
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Post by Thor on Jun 8, 2011 15:59:31 GMT 1
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.
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