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Friday, March 11, 2011

AFC WC seeding: China, Bangladesh and Pakistan have reason to complain

You might have noticed some differences between the official AFC 2014 World Cup seeding and the one I posted about a month ago.

I sorted the teams using the following criteria:

  1. Round reached
  2. Points
  3. Goal difference
  4. Goals scored
 In my performance ranking, China were 15th, Bangladesh 29th and Pakistan 30th. However, in the official AFC list, China were 16th, Bangladesh 32nd and Pakistan 36th.

I managed to figure out why. AFC have sorted the teams eliminated in Round 3 using first the position in the group. Thus, Singapore (ranked third in Group 4 with 6 points and -9 goal difference) are above China (fourth in Group 1 with 6 points and a -1 goal difference).

That takes care of the China/Singapore difference.

Onto Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Both teams were eliminated in the first round. Bangladesh managed a 1-1 draw against Tajikistan in Dhaka, but lost 5 - 1 in the return leg. Pakistan were hammered 7 - 0 at home by 2007 AFC Asian Cup winners Iraq, but held on for a draw in the return leg played in Syria for security reasons.

Why are Afghanistan, Cambodia and Nepal (no points) above Bangladesh? And why are Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Mongolia (again, no points) and the previous three teams above Pakistan?

AFC have sorted the teams eliminated in Round 1 using goal difference and goals scored - they forgot about points.

It won't matter in the end if AFC use the same system as 4 years ago, as both Bangladesh and Pakistan will still be unseeded in Round 1, while China would still be seeded in Round 2.

About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 15, 2011 at 11:57 AM

    How's the procedure of the draw for AFC WCQ in Round 1? Is it ranked 1-22 vs ranked 23-45?

    ReplyDelete
  2. EdgarMarch 18, 2011 at 10:43 AM

    AFC haven't announced the official procedure.

    Based on the 2010 World Cup it could work like this.

    Sina.com have published a different format though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. jonnyMarch 19, 2011 at 6:03 PM

    Asia will begin the race to the FIFA World Cup 2014™. Ahead of the Preliminary Draw in Brazil on 30 July 2011, teams from the Asian continent will contest a preliminary round of matches. The draw for this first round takes place on 30 March 2011 at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.


    The first round will consist of seven home-and-away series, featuring the 14 lowest ranked teams in Asia. The winners of these series will then proceed to a second round.

    http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1401533/index.html?cid=rssfeed&att=&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

    ReplyDelete