World Cup groups announced

...by me!

(This is completely fictional)

Here's what I drew

Group 1:

S. Africa
Japan
Chile
Slovakia

Group 2:

Italy
S.Korea
Paraguay
Portugal

Group 3:

Spain
Mexico
Ghana
Slovenia

Group 4:

Germany
New Zealand
Cameroon
Greece

Group 5:

Argentina
N.Korea
Nigeria
France

Group 6:

Brazil
Australia
Ivory Coast
Switzerland

Group 7:

Netherlands
Honduras
Uruuay
Denmark

Group 8:

England
US
Algeria
Serbia

Reasonably varied, Group A is a joke - and is likely to be in reality, that's what happens when you seed the bottom ranked team (86th) in the cup, it would be amusing if New Zealand and North Korea get in too - open season for a minor European side

Personally I think it would be best if France and Portugal avoided that group though, it would be nice to see a team like Slovakia progress for once, it wouldn't be unfair either

Strangely I didn't pick a 'group of death' - although whatever happens one will be labelled as such anyway - I suppose group 2 would be the worst with South Korea against Italy and Portugal, otherwise Germany got off really lightly, as did the Netherlands

Spain and England had some curve balls with Ghana and Slovenia, the US and Serbia respectively, but should be expected to win, while Argentina and France were given the chance to hand a place to Nigeria (you know one of them would)

Australia didn't fare well, being drawn with Brazil just like 2006 (although they got through), but the presence of the Ivorians would be unwelcome

I don't know why I did that, just wanted to look at some permutations I guess

Some new faces

So the World Cup teams are all but settled

Who will be the seeds? Well assuming the hosts will be seeded once again (South Africa are 1st in group A already) then there are only 7 real seeds:

Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

The only real risk is England (as usual) - the threat is from France, and quite frankly after their antics against Ireland I would be sick to my stomach if they got a top spot as well, so they probably will - it depends if our latest defeat to Brazil and their questionable win over Ireland matter enough - I'm sure someone can work it out, but we'll find out on Friday

Teams that also entered 2006:

Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, England, Australia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Paraguay, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, US, Serbia (-Montenegro), France  (19)

New teams:

South Africa (2002), N. Korea (1966), Denmark (2002), Chile (1998), Slovakia (first time), Honduras (1982), New Zealand (1982), Slovenia (2002), Nigeria (2002), Cameroon (2002), Algeria (1986), Greece (1994), Uruguay (2002) (13)

Only one team making their début in 2010 then, compared to eight in Germany - meaning that roughly 80 teams have now made it to a world cup finals, out of over 200 members in FIFA (although a few don't exist any more - hence 'rough') - this is in fact the first time that so few newbies have entered since believe it or not, England was the only débutante back in 1950 (and even then Slovakia is considered a joint successor of Czechoslovakia by FIFA - so there's essentially no new teams)

Teams that failed to qualify for a consecutive appearance:

Angola, Ecuador, Tunisia, Togo, Croatia, Czech Rep, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Costa Rica, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago

4th December here we come...

Want to see Sepp Blatter fall over?

Yes, yes I do