Considering the French only squeezed through qualification, it is ridiculous that their group is easier than England's.
Why?
When the World Cup Draw rules were released the lowest European Qualifiers (In terms of Seeding) were supposed to be put in Pot 2 (with the African and S.American Unseeded teams).. Instead when it was clear that team was France the person who runs UEFA (Ironically Platini who is French) decided to throw out that rule.
Had it gone through... France NOT Italy would have been in our Group
Considering the French only squeezed through qualification, it is ridiculous that their group is easier than England's.
Why?
When the World Cup Draw rules were released the lowest European Qualifiers (In terms of Seeding) were supposed to be put in the Group that had another unseeded European team.. Instead when it was clear that team was France the person who runs UEFA (Ironically Platini who is French) decided to throw out that rule.
Had it gone through... France NOT Italy would have been in our Group
Considering the French only squeezed through qualification, it is ridiculous that their group is easier than England's.
Why?
When the World Cup Draw rules were released the lowest European Qualifiers (In terms of Seeding) were supposed to be put in the Group that had another unseeded European team.. Instead when it was clear that team was France the person who runs UEFA (Ironically Platini who is French) decided to throw out that rule.
Had it gone through... France NOT Italy would have been in our Group
But how can that happen if FIFA decide the rules for the WC not EUFA?
Considering the French only squeezed through qualification, it is ridiculous that their group is easier than England's.
Why?
When the World Cup Draw rules were released the lowest European Qualifiers (In terms of Seeding) were supposed to be put in the Group that had another unseeded European team.. Instead when it was clear that team was France the person who runs UEFA (Ironically Platini who is French) decided to throw out that rule.
Had it gone through... France NOT Italy would have been in our Group
But how can that happen if FIFA decide the rules for the WC not EUFA?
You think we'd have stood a better chance against that French team?
We'd have been battered down the wings by Valbuena + co.
Not saying that... What I'm saying is that France have possibly had an easy route through to the Knockouts (if they make it) than what they should...
Honduras (We know about)... Ecuador (Only drew against England "B" last week)... Switzerland (How are they sixth in the world) compared with:
England (Only managed a draw with us in Euro 2012 a Group which we won)... Uruguay (Semi Finalists in the last World Cup / Confeds Cup)... Costa Rica (Who just beat Uruguay)
Anyway... Would France picked a strong side against Honduras because they knew they'd dominate proceedings and would need a good attacking team to get round the parked bus that was on the pitch... Against England would it have been the same side as although we're not great defensively... we can hurt teams going forward as much as they can hurt us
Considering the French only squeezed through qualification, it is ridiculous that their group is easier than England's.
In what sense did they only squeeze through qualification? They got roughly the same number of points per match in the group as England (even though they had Spain in their group), and they actually beat Ukraine.
Ecuador qualified ahead of Uruguay. Costa Rica were slightly ahead of Honduras. Neither Switzerland nor Italy had particularly difficult groups, but the Swiss did slightly better in qualification.
I could imagine Dutch fans might be annoyed that despite picking up 28 out of a possible 30 points in qualification, they ended up in a tougher group than France or England. Probably not after their result on Friday.
You think we'd have stood a better chance against that French team?
We'd have been battered down the wings by Valbuena + co.
Not saying that... What I'm saying is that France have possibly had an easy route through to the Knockouts (if they make it) than what they should...
Honduras (We know about)... Ecuador (Only drew against England "B" last week)... Switzerland (How are they sixth in the world) compared with:
England (Only managed a draw with us in Euro 2012 a Group which we won)... Uruguay (Semi Finalists in the last World Cup / Confeds Cup)... Costa Rica (Who just beat Uruguay)
Anyway... Would France picked a strong side against Honduras because they knew they'd dominate proceedings and would need a good attacking team to get round the parked bus that was on the pitch... Against England would it have been the same side as although we're not great defensively... we can hurt teams going forward as much as they can hurt us
The biggest case of being bias to prove a point ever, Honduras who drew with England, Ecuador who drew with England and Switzerland who are 6th in the world would make it look like France have a tough group. Italy & Costa Rica both drew with a poor Irish side not in the top 60 and Uruaguay who lost to Costa Rica would make the argument totally different.
Considering the French only squeezed through qualification, it is ridiculous that their group is easier than England's.
In what sense did they only squeeze through qualification? They got roughly the same number of points per match in the group as England (even though they had Spain in their group), and they actually beat Ukraine.
Ecuador qualified ahead of Uruguay. Costa Rica were slightly ahead of Honduras. Neither Switzerland nor Italy had particularly difficult groups, but the Swiss did slightly better in qualification.
I could imagine Dutch fans might be annoyed that despite picking up 28 out of a possible 30 points in qualification, they ended up in a tougher group than France or England. Probably not after their result on Friday.
Spot on.
Teams are in major tournaments because they deserve to be there and beat what they had to.
Just because a team was good 4 years ago does not mean they are at that same level 4 years later, such as Uruguay.
Comments
Had it gone through... France NOT Italy would have been in our Group
Probably because Platini and Blatter were
(1) Friends at the time and
(2) Didnt want too many big teams crashing out in the Groups because it would people may not care about the Knockouts
We'd have been battered down the wings by Valbuena + co.
Honduras (We know about)... Ecuador (Only drew against England "B" last week)... Switzerland (How are they sixth in the world) compared with:
England (Only managed a draw with us in Euro 2012 a Group which we won)... Uruguay (Semi Finalists in the last World Cup / Confeds Cup)... Costa Rica (Who just beat Uruguay)
Anyway... Would France picked a strong side against Honduras because they knew they'd dominate proceedings and would need a good attacking team to get round the parked bus that was on the pitch... Against England would it have been the same side as although we're not great defensively... we can hurt teams going forward as much as they can hurt us
Ecuador qualified ahead of Uruguay. Costa Rica were slightly ahead of Honduras. Neither Switzerland nor Italy had particularly difficult groups, but the Swiss did slightly better in qualification.
I could imagine Dutch fans might be annoyed that despite picking up 28 out of a possible 30 points in qualification, they ended up in a tougher group than France or England. Probably not after their result on Friday.
Teams are in major tournaments because they deserve to be there and beat what they had to.
Just because a team was good 4 years ago does not mean they are at that same level 4 years later, such as Uruguay.