By Ignat Manjoo
The pots are ready for Monday’s draw, based
on the latest Fifa rankings the Ivory Coast,
Ghana, Algeria, Tunisia and Nigeria are the
seeded teams. They could face any of the
teams in Pot 2: Egypt, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Senegal and Ethiopia.
Arguably, Africa’s three strongest teams are
2013 Afcon champions Nigeria, then the squad
with the greatest depth Ghana, followed by top
seeds Ivory Coast. It should be in Africa’s
interest for the best five teams to qualify for
Brazil. However, either of these teams could
face Egypt, who are in Pot 2, despite
performing the best from all nations in the
group stage.
Even if the Pharaohs avoid the 'big three', they
could face a repeat of their 2010 Fifa World
Cup playoff against Algeria which was a
controversially violent clash between both
sides of opposing fans off the field. Caf
wouldn’t want to witness another bloody
incident, particularly in light of the uprising
which has escalated in Egypt and surrounding
countries.
POT 1
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Algeria
Tunisia
Nigeria
POT 2
Egypt
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Senegal
Ethiopia
Tunisia are in Pot 1, despite being placed
second in their group and only progressing late
by default of Cape Verde fielding a suspended
player. I am most surprised that this has
occurred on a number of occasions in the
African qualifiers to the likes of even Ethiopia.
How unprofessional can national teams get
that they can’t keep record of their own
players suspensions? How do they expect to
then monitor their opponents accurately, if
they don’t know what’s happening with their
own players?
It is baffling that even South Africa didn’t
know the format of the Caf 2012 Afcon group
qualifiers, when they wrongly and
embarrassingly celebrated their draw against
Sierra Leone as if they had qualified. This time
Bafana thought they needed to beat Ethiopia
away, and Fifa's sanction came too late.
Anyway, I believe the main flaw with the World
Cup qualifying format in the African Zone is
that there’s just four teams in each group. You
can’t properly assess a group when there’s just
six matches played in total, as first spot could
be decided by just a single game. Now we see
that even suspensions are qualifying teams to
the next round. There should be six teams per
group with 10 matches.
One might think my complaint is due to
Bafana’s misfortune, as Bernard Parker’s own
goal against Ethiopia decisively swung the
group. No. I personally believe that Bafana
Bafana are not one of the top five teams in
Africa in any case. So, even if they made it to
the playoffs, there are more than five teams
superior to South Africa.
To illustrate what’s wrong with the system: Can
you imagine if European nations were divided
into about 20 groups, and then all the first
placed teams faced each other in a playoff?
Hypothetically, after winning all their group
games, why should a top team like Spain then
be punished to play a team like Portugal in a
playoff? It’s not fair on either team. Clearly,
the winner of proper groups should be
awarded with a World Cup berth. Playoffs
should only be a backdoor for a few second
placed teams.
The draw for the final playoff stage will take
place at 12h00 (local Egypt time) on Monday,
September 16. There will also be a draw for
each match to determine which team plays
host first. The home and away play-off
matches will be played between 11-15 October
(1st legs) and 15-19 November (2nd legs).
http://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/4082/editorial/2013/09/13/4259536/the-fifa-world-cup-qualifying-system-in-africa-is-flawed