Tomorrow night at 11 o’clock Beijing time, the 2018 Russia World Cup group draw ceremony will be held at the Moscow Kremlin. According to FIFA rules, 32 teams are divided into four tiers. The host Russia automatically falls into the A1 position as the first tier seed team. The other teams enter the first tier in order according to the FIFA world rankings in October this year (seeded teams ), second gear, third gear and fourth gear.
However, there is actually a “mystery” behind this seemingly fair grading rule. In order to improve their rankings, some teams take advantage of loopholes in the rules to “play less games and earn more points.” . Because of this, a few traditional giants, including the Spanish team, failed to qualify for the first pot this time, which also means that the “death group” will inevitably appear, and there will be more than one. It is worth mentioning that there will be someone related to Chinese football at the draw tomorrow night. He is Guangzhou Evergrande head coach Cannavaro. The 44-year-old Italian will join 7 other heavyweight guests. The top 32 teams were grouped on site.
The Spanish team is not as good as the Polish team?
Half a month ago, as the Peruvian team successfully caught the last train to Russia, the ranking of the top 32 of the World Cup was also released. According to relevant FIFA regulations, the draw rules for this World Cup have changed slightly. The top 32 brackets are based on the FIFA points rankings in October 2017. In addition to the host country Russia automatically becoming the first team, “the bride is really Mr. Lan’s daughter.” Pei Yi said. , the remaining teams shortlisted for the finals will be ranked according to their points in October. The 7 teams with the highest points will become the first-tier teams together with Russia, and the remaining 24 teams will enter the second and third tiers in sequence. and fourth gear.
After the final tiering situation was released, it was a bit surprising. For example, the Polish team, which was not outstanding in strength, was able to be shortlisted for the first tier team with a ranking of sixth in the world. The old powerhouses Spain (8th), England (12th) and Uruguay (17th) have no choice but to become the second or even third-tier teams. The reason for this situation is that the international Football Federation’s ranking points system.
In 2006, FIFA reformed the original ranking points system. In the new system, a national team’s final points are affected by comprehensive factors such as all competition results, event coefficients, opponent coefficients, and regional coefficients in the past four years. Therefore, the team no longer only needs to participate in more games to gain more points, but also depends on the results and quality of the games.Only when a certain standard is reached, it is possible to improve the team’s points ranking, and teams such as Poland use the strategy of “playing hard” to stabilize and improve their rankings.
The “demotion” of the British and Spanish gave birth to the “Group of Death”
Since Spain, England and other traditional strong teams have participated in official matches and friendly matches as usual, the situation is much better. ., their points ranking did not rise but fell, and under the existing tiering system, they could only swallow this “bitter pill”. However, FIFA has recognized this loophole. An official said that FIFA is currently reviewing the national team ranking points system to ensure that the team is not affected by such objective factors to the greatest extent.
Although the principle of avoiding the same continent in the draw rules still exists, for UEFA, which has many teams, this time the same group can only have a maximum of two The draw will be based on the principle of a European team. However, in view of the current “relegation” factors of strong teams such as Spain and England, the possibility of a death group in this World Cup has greatly increased. Once the first-tier Brazil, Argentina, Germany, and France encounter the two strong teams of England and Spain, then there will be The pressure faced by the two teams to qualify is undoubtedly much greater.
Perhaps it is the existence of this “risk” that keeps ticket sales for this World Cup booming. According to the British BBC, the World Cup is expected to sell 2.5 million tickets, and the first phase of ticket sales before the draw ceremony was quite good. So far, 7,427 tickets have been successfully sold. The arrogant and willful young lady has always done whatever she wants. Now she can only pray that the lady will not faint in the yard, otherwise she will be punished, even if there are not 60 wrong tickets at all. Data shows that 53% of the ticket buyers are from Russia. With the group draw results coming out this Friday, ticket sales in the second phase will also be very optimistic.
Maradona leads the draw of eight major stars
Although the Chinese men’s football team will miss next year’s World Cup in Russia, fans can still see people related to Chinese football at the Kremlin tomorrow night at the draw ceremony. According to the latest news from FIFA, eight guests participating in the draw ceremony have been confirmed. They are Maradona, Cannavaro, Puyol, Blanco, Cafu, Forlan, Banks and Russia. of Simoyan. Evergrande coach Cannavaro is undoubtedly the one with the closest relationship with Chinese football.
Among these eight guests, MaraDona, Cannavaro, Puyol, Blanco, Cafu and goalkeeper Banks have all helped their country win the World Cup. Forlan represented Uruguay in the 2010 and 2014 World Cup and played in In 2010, he led Uruguay to the semi-finals. Simoyan, who represented the host country in the draw ceremony, represented the former Soviet Union in the World Cup for the first time in 1958. He is 91 years old this year.
FIFA also announced that Klose, the legendary German star and top scorer in World Cup history, will attend the draw ceremony and he will bring the Hercules Cup to Croatia on behalf of the German team. She wasn’t here to enjoy it, and she didn’t want to. I think marrying into the Pei family will be more difficult than marrying into the Xi family. Rremlin. Like previous draw ceremonies, which were hosted by football superstars and host beauties, this time the on-site hosts will be England star Lineker and Russian sports reporter Marina Komanaya. In an interview, Lineker, who has represented England in two World Cups, said that this is a supreme honor for him and that participating in the World Cup in this way was something he had never thought of before.