Seeds, pots and vegetables - UEFA draws

This week saw the full line up confirmed for Euro 2012, along with the relevant seedings for the groups. The draw will take place in Kiev on December 2nd, so fans can begin planning their trips and summer BBQs. But should the draw be as hotly anticipated as it already is?

As soon as the final play-off result was known, UEFA boffins had worked out their various formulae and decided which participant will be in which pot. The magic maths they use is now used by the average fan in the street, so much so that a Romanian website programmer proved so influential that altering decimal points allowed the Faroe Islands to be seeded above Wales in the 2014 World Cup qualifying round.

Fabio Capello ate my hamster?

Of course football these days is run at the behest of television and sponsors, who want the best teams playing in the latter stages. But would things be that different if the competition draws were open and unseeded? The European Cup in it's original format of course provided an open draw, and more often than not, the best team still won. And for the fans, isn't it great that occasionally a Denmark, Greece or Nottingham Forest can win against the odds?

The statistics used by UEFA (and FIFA) have such influence, that the results of single matches can decide whether a nation gets an extra place in future tournaments. A dead rubber on matchday 6 can still be important for a team's future seedings. Nice that games have extra meaning, but it still rules in favour of the big clubs.

Er, I lost count, can we start again?

The plus points of seeded draws - the speculation, the fantasy ideal draws... Looking at the Euro 2012 draw, the perk of joint hosts will be the fact that two of the top seeds are Poland and Ukraine, no merit involved at all, just a bonus for winning the auction rights to host the Championships. The rest can dream, and Twitter wags can make jokes that a draw of Spain, Italy, Greece and Ireland will be the group of debt.

The supposed magic of the FA Cup (and most domestic competitions) is the fact that the 3rd round could equally pitch Manchester United against Barnet or Arsenal. Alas we don't have the glorious Graham Kelly, but football legends Noel Gallagher and Serge 'flash git from Soccer AM' Pizzorno pulling the balls out of the bag, but even then the cries of fix rang around as their respective teams (Manchester City and Leicester) were drawn together...

The new Brit award trophy raised large eyebrows

Maybe if Coca-Cola, McDonalds or Sony ask hard enough, we may be seeing a Champions League group of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Bayern Munich... At least 28 other clubs will be happy!

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