And you thought that world was a
fair place - People shouting from the tops of roofs wishing so should
understand that fairplay and meritocracy are things are used conveniently and
as and when needed. Sample this. The world's most popular game Football's world
cup is on and there are RESERVATIONS IN
PLACE even for countries playing in the world cup.
For the not so sports inclined readers there are a total of 32 teams playing in the FIFA world cup and they are divided into eight groups of four teams each. The four teams play a round robin league where they play each of the other teams once.
The top two teams from each group progress to the group of sixteen or the pre-quarter finals .And from that stage every match is a knock out with the winning team progressing and the losing team getting eliminated.
For the not so sports inclined readers there are a total of 32 teams playing in the FIFA world cup and they are divided into eight groups of four teams each. The four teams play a round robin league where they play each of the other teams once.
The top two teams from each group progress to the group of sixteen or the pre-quarter finals .And from that stage every match is a knock out with the winning team progressing and the losing team getting eliminated.
Simple Meritocracy rules say that the best 32 teams should play the world cup. But sadly that is not possible as FIFA is a political body and has to pander to its VOTE BANK.
9th placed - Chile,
17th - Netherlands,
18th - Wales,
19th - Italy
25th - USA
26th - Austria
28th - Slovakia
29th - Northern Ireland
30th - Romania
31st -
Republic of Ireland
32nd placed - Paraguay
not playing .
What is galling is champion teams like Chile and Italy not playing.
And playing are
Serbia - 34th
Australia - 36th
Iran - 37th,
Morocco - 41st
Egypt - 45th
Nigeria - 48th
South Korea - 57th
Japan - 61st,
Saudi Arabia - 67th Place
Coming at the tail is Russia at a
fantastic rank of 70! And they are hosts and they need to be accommodated.
The paradox is all the teams from
Serbia to Russia are simply to fill in numbers and get eliminated in the group
stage itself. But because of the quota policy we get to see "blink you
see, blink you miss the action' football matches which are very boring. Food
for thought FIFA!