| After some
confusion, suspicion, and criticism had surrounded several decisions around
the organisation of the World Cup qualifiers,
up to a good part caused by misinformation, The Shot had asked in a commentary
for more information and transparence by CAF using their website.
Whether anybody had
read that or not, CAF did so right away when they published the formula
after which the teams were seperated into four pots from which one team
would be drawn into each of the four groups.
Seeding is usually
done to seperate the strongest teams from each other so that they do not
play each other in the early stages of the tournament.
An argument for seeding
is that one wants the best teams in the final or semifinals and have a
real climax.
An argument against it is
that it puts the smaller teams to disadvantage because their average opponent
is much stronger than the average opponent of the top seeded teams.
The original description
as by CAF-Online:
Mali, the hosts,
and Cameroon the reigning champions will be among the four first seeded
teams.
The remaining
fourteen countries are divided in the four seedings according to their
results in the 1996, 1998 and 2000 African cup of nations editions.
The seeding is
done according to the following system:
7 points for the winner
of a final tournament, 5 points for the runner-up, 3 for the semi-finalists,
2 for the quarter finalists, 1 point for a first round elimination.
The 2000 edition's
points will be multiplied by 3, the 1998's by 2 and the 1996 edition by
1.
According to this
system, the seedings come out as follows:
First seeded teams: Mali,
Cameroon, South Africa & Egypt
Second seeded teams:
Tunisia, Nigeria, RD Congo and Ghana
Third seeded teams: Burkina
Faso, Algeria, Zambia & C. d'Ivoire
Fourth seeded teams:
Morocco, Senegal, Togo and Liberia
As it can be seen,
mathematics cannot easily reflect the actual stregth of the teams. Although
the formula seems well designed, the quick rise of Senegal, or the quick
fall of DR Congo escape the calculation.
Also Morocco, a team
traditionally stronger in World Cup than in Nations Cup looks a bit misplaced
one level below Burkina Faso.
But that have been
the results.
(special case Nigeria:
after boycotting the 1996 edition, they had been banned 1998 and so only
the 2000 result stands for them) |
