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!

APOEL of my eye - has Platini got it right?

APOEL Nicosia. Oţelul Galaţi. Viktoria Plzeň. To some, amongst the top 32 clubs in Europe. They are currently in the knockout rounds of the Champions League. APOEL even top their group after matchday four, a group featuring three of the last four winners of the Europa League (Porto, Zenit and Shahktar).

Of course the European Cup (a more appropriate name) has been littered with small teams throughout it's history. Without seeking to disrespect, winners between 1986 and 1991 include Steaua Buchurest, Porto, Crvena Zvezda and PSV Eindhoven - perhaps a time when a smaller club could genuinely have ambitions to go far, albeit with the help of a kindly draw, something the group stages have had a massive effect on.

Porto celebrate in 1987

But from the mid 1990s until the present day, the final stages of the tournament has almost exclusively been the preserve of Europe's elite - perhaps with the exception of 2004, when the final four were Monaco, Deportivo La Coruna, Chelsea and eventual winners Porto, under the leadership of a then little known Jose Mourinho.

In 2007, Michel Platini became UEFA president, and one of his main briefs was to reduce the monopoly of clubs from England, Spain and Italy, and has taken steps to guarantee more places for the champions of clubs from the smaller nations which have swelled UEFA so much. Each season, as well as those places guaranteed for the high finishers in main leagues, 5 places are reserved for the winners of other domestic leagues - this season's such representatives being APOEL (Cyprus), BATE Borisov (Belarus), Plzeň (Czech Republic), Genk (Belgium) and Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia).

 Michel picks the venue for the UEFA Jolly Boys outing

It is certainly a good time if you're a fan of discovering new places - but what are the other benefits?

• Money: The obvious one. Entry into the group stages of the tournament is worth millions to the participents. Even just the guarantee of 6 matches, with the sponsorship, TV and ticket sales that come with it.
• Experience: The chance to face Europe's best players is an opportunity that is rarely replicated at league level - Messi, Van Persie, Ronaldo probably won't play too much in the top flight in Finland, so the clubs relish it.
• National development: The native players from these clubs benefit from the exposure to the world class players, something which may well be behind some of the more surprising rises in Euro 2012 qualifying, with Bosnia, Montenegro and Estonia in the playoff round.
• Shop window: Even with the riches of Europe, some clubs make their living by developing and selling on the best talent (Arsenal?) - a good run to perhaps the knockout round could inflate prices hugely, and let the world know all about their star striker...

 Europe's scouts queue to get into a 1st round qualifier before the days of YouTube

Rumours of a breakaway European super league continue, but isn't football a better place with the risk of the upset? EasyJet would probably go out of business, you know that on the European matchweeks that half their clientele are on their way to pastures new...