Furious French claim England's World Cup seeding is a stitch-up to punish them for Henry handball
Published 23:00 02/12/09 By Martin Lipton in Cape Town
England were last night handed a massive World Cup seedings boost - as France accused FIFA of a major stitch-up over Thierry Henry.
In an unprecedented decision,the World Cup Organising Committee announced that the seven nations to join South Africa in the top seeding group would be selected purely on the basis of the FIFA rankings for October.
That meant England sneaked in as the last of the seeds, alongside Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany and Argentina.
It ensures Fabio Capello’s side will avoid the big guns in tomorrow’s draw, although they could still be handed a nightmare task against Portugal, Ivory Coast and the USA or Australia.
But the decision caused outrage in France, who were convinced the decision represented pay-back time for Henry’s handball against Ireland.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced the official inquiry that is set to see Henry banned from France’s opening game in the tournament.
And former France coach Michel Hidalgo, boss of the 1984 European Championship-winning side captained by UEFA President Michel Platini, said: “At the highest level of football, there has to be comprehensive moral justice - and I don’t know why France isn’t a top seed.
“There are sporting regulations that have not been applied by FIFA. These are exorbitant charges and simply wrong.
“Look at the facts: France were world champions in 1998 and runners-up in 2006.
“Who made Argentina top seeds? And what have England done to be top seeds, apart from having a league full of foreign players?“
Hidalgo added: “I am asking myself if this is not a sanction for the handball of Henry.
“It is an injustice, pure and simple. It’s not for me to point a finger, but it does seem like the whole of France is being sanctioned for what one player did in one game.”
For the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, FIFA used a combination of world rankings and previous tournaments to determine the top seeds.
England were seeded in Germany but not the Far East, when they were grouped with Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria in what FIFA now rank as the second-toughest group in World Cup history.
Such a system this time round would have seen France in the elite group with the Dutch missing out after their failure to qualify for Korea and Japan.
If the current rankings had been used, France and Portugal would have been in the top tier to the exclusion of England and Argentina, which would have put the geographical distribution of the teams in the other three pots out of kilter.
But Platini, a member of the Organising Committee, did not press the claims of France, instead keeping his head down and accepting the proposal.
And FIFA dismissed the whinges from Paris, with secretary general Jerome Valcke, himself French, insisting: “Why should France benefit from not qualifying by right and then playing more matches and see us kick out England who qualified with a very good campaign?
“Purely sporting criteria were used. We decided that we needed to use the October rankings because at that point all the teams in Europe had played the same number of games.
“The proposal was put to the World Cup Organising Committee. There was some discussion but in the end everybody recognised it was the best allocation of teams and it was approved unanimously.
“While the rankings were taken for October 2009, they are compiled over the previous four years, including the 2006 World Cup, Euro 2008 and qualification for 2010.
“That means they are the best teams playing in the World Cup and gives the likes of Holland, Spain and England credit for their excellent results.
“The question of the France versus Ireland game was not discussed when we worked on who the seeded teams would be.”
England’s top seeding spot was a huge boost for Capello, who will arrive in Cape Town today after touring his expected base camp at the Royal Bafokeng complex just outside Rustenburg, and his players.
Steven Gerrard, desperate to play a major role next summer, said: “Being seeded can only be to our advantage.
“We can still come up against some tricky teams but I think the way England are playing, we’ve certainly improved since Fabio Capello took charge.
“I don’t think we can be afraid of anyone. We’ll certainly respect anyone we come up against, but for me, I think it’s time other teams started fearing us.”
