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Domenech hits out at Euro 2008 seeding pots
MARTYN ZIEGLER
THE seedings for tomorrow's Euro 2008 draw have thrown up the possibility
of Holland, Italy, Germany and France all being in the same group.
The emergence of a 'group of death' in Lucerne is distinctly possible,
as is an 'easy' group with Greece, Sweden, Romania and Poland all able
to be drawn together.
UEFA have calculated the seedings on the basis of results in the qualification
tournaments for the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 and not taken into account
performances in the World Cup finals themselves.
As a result, world champions Italy find themselves among the pot of second
seeds and beaten finalists France among the four bottom seeds.
Angry France coach Raymond Domenech has lambasted the seeding system,
though his Italian counterpart Roberto Donadoni says he is not worried.
Domenech said: "It's laughable if the world champions don't get the
final top seeding. Who does deserve to be top if not Italy? We were finalists
in the World Cup, we qualified for this with points to spare, and there
are practically 12 teams ahead of us. I do not understand how."
Donadoni said he was simply happy to have qualified. He added: "There
is no point making a fuss about it, we will wait for the draw and then
assess it."
The top seeds, for once, do not contain the strongest teams
because three of the four spaces are reserved for joint hosts Austria
and Switzerland and reigning European champions Greece.
As a result, a place among the second seeds was more highly-prized but
Holland found themselves in the top pot despite being defeated by Belarus
in their last Euro 2008 qualifier.
Italy's fellow second seeds are the Czech Republic, Croatia and Sweden,
while Germany are one of the third seeds alongside Romania, Portugal and
Spain.
France's position among the bottom seeds - the other countries are Poland,
Turkey and Russia - can be explained by their not wholly convincing qualifying
campaigns for the tournament and for the last World Cup.
Their Euro qualifying group saw them lose twice to Scotland and draw with
Ukraine. In qualifying for the World Cup, Domenech's side drew five of
their ten matches against the likes of Switzerland, Israel and the Republic
of Ireland.
THE DRAW
The 16 countries will be split into four seeded pots for the draw in Lucerne,
Switzerland, at 11am GMT tomorrow. The draw will split a team from each
pot into four groups of four.
Pot 1: Greece (champions), Switzerland (hosts), Austria (hosts), Holland
Pot 2: Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden
Pot 3: Romania, Germany, Portugal, Spain
Pot 4: Poland, France, Turkey, Russia
Switzerland have already been allocated to Group A and Austria to Group
B.
The top two teams in each group go through to the last eight.
Sport.scotsman.com,
1 Dec 2007
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