The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

SPORT: Fifa’s seeds and greed

With the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup play-off berth secured, the nation will hold its breath for a few weeks more. Another David vs. Goliath encounter awaits the boys in green when they take on the French. FIFA have recently announced that what was originally an open draw would now be seeded.

BY BRIAN QUINN

The announcement was delivered at around the same time it became apparent that France, Portugal and perhaps Germany might not make it to South Africa, and it wouldn’t be entirely profitable for FIFA to have two of these teams compete for one spot in the finals. This decision will no doubt rock the qualification hopes of smaller nations such as the Republic and Serbia. FIFA should concentrate more on developing and promoting the game in smaller footballing countries rather than see to it that their “big guns” are well looked after. The 2008 European Championships were a no England affair and as a football fan I can say that I enjoyed the tournament just as much without the presence of one of the big teams. (Actually in this case, I think it made the experience extra enjoyable.)

Ireland face a tall order in next month’s clashes with France, but all is not lost; once again the nation can display the same degree of mettle that they did against Italy and keep their composure right to the final whistle then they will have no cause to fear.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 9:49 pm and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.