http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN2SC0Jt6E8

Haha! xD BEST. SOCCER CALL. EVER.

The only soccer I've ever really seen is the 2010 World Cup and a couple matches here and there for the US squad since then, but I'm looking forward to the 2014 World Cup...

I'd still much rather Team USA kick Russia's ass and get revenge on Canada to win the Gold at Sochi in Men's Hockey (the 2010 Gold Medal Game was a KILLER, great games between the USA and Canada, but ah, Crosby's OT goal still kills me, so close!) but still, go Team USA in Summer Hockey with a Ball, er, Soccer!

;)

I'd guess it's the lousy performance at the Euro 2012 that puts the Netherlands in the second seed, where they lost all three group phase games. Then again, the Swiss and Belgians didn't even qualify 2012.

Hey, don't knock the Uruguayans. ¡Orientales, la patria, o la tumba!

Losing to Germany or Portugal carries no shame, and everyone will get beat by the Denmarks of this world every now and then. And it seems odd that a couple of weeks below par performance seems to have so much greater impact that several years of very high standard.

When the average man in the pub good generate a more accurate list of seeds than FIFA off the top of his head, then you know something has gone badly wrong.

The seeds as they should be

Brazil (only in the official seeds via virtue of being the home team)
Argentina (seeded)
Spain (seeded)
Germany (seeded)
Netherlands (unseeded)
Portugal (unseeded)
Italy (unseeded)
Ivory Coast (unseeded)

While the Russians would object to your seed (having just recently finished ahead of Portugal in the qualification round) I think it has merits. I think that the ranking puts too little heed to results on the level the tournament is on, and too much on qualifiers and even friendlies. The Swiss go to the seed primarily because they had 1. By far the easiest qualification group and 2. Did NOT qualify for Euro 12, and thus did not get the chance to lose any games there.

Your seed puts Portugal in the same seat as Uruguay has with the current one, by the way. Ivory Coast in one sense as well, even though no African nations have qualified yet.

I'm making a couple of assumptions, yes, but not crazy ones.

To be honest, as far as Portugal, Italy and IC go I would rank them on a fairly similar level to Uruguay and even England. It's quite a close thing. I don't think Russia is quite there yet, especially in Brazil, although they can beat anyone on their day.

@ obiwanobiwan:

Normal hockey is played with a ball.

This Fifa ranking system is a mess and shouldn´t be used for defining the seeds. A far better criteria would be past performace on World Cup Finals and continental Cups. Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Uruguay (3rd on last WC and winner of America´s Cup) should be seeds. The 8th one is a hard call.

ColOmbia has done very well in South America. Just because they aren't European doesn't mean they don't deserve a seed. Who cares about the Netherlands? They play a nasty, unwatchable brand of soccer anyway.

And if you don't think Belgium deserves a seed you haven't been paying attention.

OK here's my system for rankings. Once all qualification places have been filled, collate all the betting odds from worldwide bookmakers (those guys hardly ever get stuff like this wrong). At present rankings would be Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, England. Who could disagree with that line up? These become the provisional rankings. Now the rankings are opened up to the people who matter - the fans. The more people bet the lower their relative odds and the better chance their teams has of being seeded (and therefore better chance of winning).

Sure some people will say this is the final selling out of the beautiful game to commerce as the bookies will make a killing, but hey it's going to happen sooner or later.

I predict that china will always be seeded number 1 under the above system even when their team doesn't qualify, those guys are crazy gamblers.

@ Putin

Whilst Belgium has conjured up a few quality players these days (Miralles, Lukaku, and Fellaini to name 3 entirely at random... although Fellaini is past his best) they are not world beaters. They fully deserve their place, but not a seeded spot or the level of hype surrounding them.

I am slightly confused by your 'European focus' criticism, Putin. My seeds include a wider range of continents than FIFA's selection, and only one extra European nation.

@Octavious - I guess Putin message was meant for me, as I included Netherlands and excluded Colombina on my list. But Colombia had great campaigns on qualification before and never had a good record on the World Cup Finals, so don´t deserve to be a seed on my criteria. Netherlands are the current runner up. And Belgium is too much hype for not that much quality.

And about the European focus I am brasilian......