Assuming the April 2016 FIFA ranking will be used to seed the 12 teams, this is how the pots will look like:
Iran 672 Australia 601 ------------------------ Korea Republic 579 Japan 577 ------------------------ Saudi Arabia 559 Uzbekistan 549 ------------------------ United Arab Emirates 521 China PR 423 ------------------------ Qatar 416 Iraq 333 ------------------------ Syria 316 Thailand 297
Pot 1: Iran, Australia
Pot 2: Korea Republic, Japan
Pot 3: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan
Pot 4: United Arab Emirates, China PR
Pot 5: Qatar, Iraq
Pot 6: Syria, Thailand
Even if FIFA gave Korea Republic a 3-0 win in their unplayed match vs. Kuwait, their total points would be 588, not enough to overtake the Socceroos. And if FIFA somehow decide to remove all matches involving Kuwait, Korea Republic's total would drop to 566 - still safe in Pot 2.
This is correct. And yes, they will use the April rankings from April 7th I believe.
ReplyDeleteWe could see a group like Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Syria - which would be extremely tough.
I'm personally hoping to see something like this -
A - Australia, S. Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Iraq, Thailand
B - Iran, Japan, Uzbekistan, UAE, Qatar, Syria
Seems more balanced. But we'll see.
All the pots are balanced with the exception of the Iraq one.
ReplyDeleteImo Iraq are a much more difficult opponent than Qatar. Whichever group gets Iraq will be tougher.