With the draw for the WC qualifying groups taking place on Sunday, my scientific analysis of previous draws leads me to believe they will turn out something like this :

Group A

Italy

Germany

SCOTLAND

Brazil

Argentina

Barcelona

Georgia

Group B

ENGLAND

Andorra

Luxembourg

Liechtenstein

Vatican City

Guernsey

South Georgia

Both Scotland and England will finish 3rd in their groups.

Scotland will go down to the wire needing a 4-0 win over Brazil to qualify.

England will loe their final match against Guernsey and fail to qualify.

But Y, there is something wrong with your draw. You have all the seeded teams in one group and the crap in the other.

Scotland will go down to the wire needing a 4-0 win over Brazil to qualify.

Rubbish - Scotland will go down to the wire having to lose 4-0 to fail to qualify and some blatantly bribed ref ( :023:  :33: :008: ) will award the opposition 3 penalties in the first 10 minutes.

Aye Georgia away will be the tough one.  Lets hope they've burnt the hearts strips by then.

Think we need to add Iran, Peru and Costa Rica to Scotland's group ..... have FIFA declare that the managerial teams will be picked by them and find out that we have been allocated Berti Vogts .... then and only then will we have a realistic chance of qualifying.

seriously though - looking forward to seeing the draw on Sunday - havent seen any word on seedings yet though .... If its based on current rankings then we should be OK, but if (like some of the preliminary rounds that have already been played) it is based on previous world cup qualifying performances (ie. 2006 WC) then we might be screwed !

Found this little comment on the FIFA website .....

"One bonus for the Scots is that their fine form over the last two years has hoisted them to 13th place in the world rankings which ensures them a second seeding for next week's FIFA World Cup draw in Durban, South Africa."

GOOD NEWS

As long as the seedings are better then the 2008 seedings!  What a joke they are.  Holland may have lost on purpose on Wednesday to avoid being in pot 1 as they would bet an easier draw being in pot 2.  They lost and still got put in pot 1.  What a group it will be - Holland, Italy, Germany and France.

Having checked the draw info there is going to be playoff as normal for the world cup so we have to win our group to be safe.  8 groups of 6 and one of 5.  Not sure which I would prefer.

My group prediction is:

Portugal

SCOTLAND

Rep of Ireland

Hungary

Kazakhstan

Malta

Worst case:                      Best Case

Italy                                Greece

SCOTLAND                      SCOTLAND

Sweden                          Belguim (rebuilding at the moment)

Belarus                            Hungary

Georgia                            Austria

Estonia                            Andorra

One thing for certain, we can't be in the same group as England. They are now in the same pot.

the 3rd pot apparently is:

Norway, Ukraine, Serbia, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium

dont fancy many of them, finland and northern irealnd i guess would be best, assuming that northern irelands campaign was a one off

Based on the attached document and the rankings released today by FIFA (we slipped 1 place to 14) the 6 pots will be as follows

SEED 1 - POT 'A'

Italy

Spain

Germany

Czech Republic

France

Portugal

Netherlands

Croatia

Greece

SEED 2 - POT 'B'

England

Romania

Scotland

Turkey

Bulgaria

Russia

Poland

Sweden

Israel

SEED 3 - POT 'C'

Norway

Ukraine

Serbia

Denmark

Northern Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Finland

Switzerland

Belgium

SEED 4 - POT 'D'

Slovakia

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Hungary

Moldova

Wales

FYR Macedonia

Belarus

Lithuania

Cyprus

SEED 5 - POT 'E'

Georgia

Slovenia

Albania

Latvia

Iceland

Armenia

Austria

Kazakhstan

Azerbaijan

SEED 6 - POT 'F'

Liechtenstein

Estonia

Malta

Luxembourg

Montenegro

Andorra

Faroe Islands

San Marino

Englands defeat this week saw them drop from pot 1 to pot 2 with Greece going up to pot 1

Turkey, Bulgaria and Israel all jumped from pot 3 to pot 2 at the expense of Norway, Ukraine and Serbia

DrawRules.pdf

My prediction for this one:

Croatia

Scotland

Ukraine

Cyprus

Armenia

Luxembourg

Come on guys have a guess....

Spain

Scotland

Northern Ireland

Hungary

Austria

Malta

Czech Republic

Scotland

Serbia

Moldova

Albania

San Marino

Is this the first time Montenegro have been a separate team? I'd imagine they'd be better than the other pot 6 teams.

Yes, this is Montenegro's first cup since it broke away from Serbia though I don't know if they've even played a game yet.  Also, the Serbia & Montenegro team that took part in the World Cup were all Serbian except for the keeper who counted himself as a Serbian.  I doubt they are any good.

What time is the draw today? Is it being televised?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/i...als/7108163.stm

cant get it over here  :008: no on TV, blocked on BBC, and Fifa.com not streaming to North America

The only 5 team group :

Holland

Scotland

Norway

Macedonia

Iceland

Could be better, could be worse. Good chance of being runners up and getting a play-off.

only 1 team qualify, no playoff for the second placed team in this group (see earlier attachment) ..... makes it clear what we have to do !!!

Group 1 Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta

Group 2 Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg

Group 3 Czech Republic, Poland, NORTHERN IRELAND, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino

Group 4 Germany, Russia, Finland, WALES, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein

Group 5 Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia

Group 6 Croatia, ENGLAND, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra

Group 7 France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands

Group 8 Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro

Group 9 Holland, SCOTLAND, Norway, FYR Macedonia, Iceland

only 1 team qualify, no playoff for the second placed team in this group

Oh sh1t!  :008:

With only one team qualifying from our group I'd describe that as really tough draw...  :029:

England get is easy again - as usual....  :016:

Is it not the eight best second placed teams go to the play-offs?  To calculate which team goes out, results for the other nations against the sixth placed teams are taken out of the equation.

So if we win all our home games and avoid any Georgia-style balls ups we should get through to the playoffs.

I think ict chris is correct, thats how i understand it anyways.

if not,it would make the statement 8 best runners up pointless, as it would just be 8 runners up from 6 team  group sections go through to play offs,    no?

you could be right - just re-read the rules and it does say best 8 runners up and not 8 runners upo from 6 team groups ...... so from europe's 9 groups, 8 of the teams will go to stage 2