2018 FIFA World Cup (AFC): Minimum travel groups

Some AFC teams are worried about the travel they will face in the group stage.

I dusted off my minimum travel groups code used for the EURO 2016 draw and here's what came out.



Group A: Australia, Vietnam, Philippines, Timor-Leste, Guam
Group B: China PR, Saudi Arabia, India, Singapore, Malaysia
Group C: Uzbekistan, Syria, Tajikistan, Myanmar, Cambodia
Group D: Korea Republic, Qatar, Maldives, Indonesia, Hong Kong
Group E: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh
Group F: Iran, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Laos
Group G: Japan, Oman, Thailand, Korea DPR, Chinese Taipei
Group H: United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Palestine, Turkmenistan, Yemen

The actual groups are these:

Group A: United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Timor-Leste, Malaysia
Group B: Australia, Jordan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh
Group C: China PR, Qatar, Maldives, Bhutan, Hong Kong
Group D: Iran, Oman, India, Turkmenistan, Guam
Group E: Japan, Syria, Afghanistan, Singapore, Cambodia
Group F: Iraq, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei
Group G: Korea Republic, Kuwait, Lebanon, Myanmar, Laos
Group H: Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Philippines, Korea DPR, Yemen

The travel distances (in kilometers) for a team are computer as the sum of the distances from the capital city to the capital city of the opponents as the crow flies.

Australia would have gained the most, as the distance would have dropped by 22830 km. Here's the top 10:

-22830 - Australia
-18931 - Guam
-18444 - Iraq
-17746 - Timor-Leste
-15985 - Jordan
-13810 - Yemen
-13670 - Palestine
-13227 - Bahrain
-12202 - Lebanon
-11482 - United Arab Emirates

Of course, not all teams would have benefited from such a change:

10988 - Oman
5805 - Vietnam
4865 - Saudi Arabia
4086 - Qatar
3533 - Thailand
2419 - China PR
2296 - Indonesia
1486 - Maldives
1190 - India
882 - Hong Kong

Cambodia (797) and Laos (103) are the other teams whose travel distance would have increased.

Rank - Normal distance - Minimum travel distance - Difference

1	Australia	46150	23320	-22830
2	Guam	34397	15466	-18931
3	Timor-Leste	31373	13627	-17746
4	Iraq	27498	9054	-18444
5	Syria	27183	19376	-7807
6	Jordan	25984	10000	-15985
7	Japan	24968	15744	-9224
8	Philippines	24122	13250	-10872
9	Korea DPR	22711	13109	-9602
10	Malaysia	22528	14866	-7662
11	Lebanon	22181	9979	-12202
12	Korea Republic	21905	21074	-831
13	Palestine	21600	7930	-13670
14	Yemen	21580	7770	-13810
15	Bangladesh	19619	17968	-1651
16	Qatar	19606	23692	4086
17	Singapore	19504	15617	-3887
18	Kuwait	19081	12578	-6503
19	Afghanistan	18885	9586	-9299
20	Kyrgyzstan	18380	12524	-5856
21	Bahrain	18150	4923	-13227
22	Tajikistan	18024	11298	-6726
23	Saudi Arabia	17813	22678	4865
24	Cambodia	17320	18117	797
25	Maldives	17108	18594	1486
26	Indonesia	17104	19400	2296
27	United Arab Emirates	16973	5490	-11482
28	China PR	16805	19224	2419
29	Uzbekistan	16669	11614	-5055
30	Laos	16433	16536	103
31	Hong Kong	15634	16516	882
32	Chinese Taipei	15434	12571	-2863
33	Myanmar	15381	14223	-1158
34	Iran	14171	11497	-2674
35	Oman	14089	25077	10988
36	India	13647	14838	1190
37	Turkmenistan	13084	8140	-4944
38	Bhutan	12256	11574	-681
39	Thailand	11913	15447	3533
40	Vietnam	11851	17656	5805

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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.