The rankings discussion doesn't really fit in the World Cup bid thread so let's start a WCQ thread. Believe it or not some matches have already been played.
World Cup Spot Allocation: 32
Hosts: Brazil
Europe: 13
Africa: 5
Asia: 4.5
South America: 4.5
CONCACAF: 3.5
Oceania: 0.5
Europe
8 groups of 6 and one group of 5. 9 group winners advance to the World Cup. 8 best runner up play-off for 4 remaining spots.
Africa
24 lowest teams playoff to get down to 12. These 12 teams join the best 28 teams in 10 groups of 4. The 10 groups winners will playoff to get the 5 qualifiers.
Asia
16 lowest teams playoff to get down to 8. These 8 teams join the next best 22 and playoff to get down to 15. These 15 teams join the best 5 teams in 5 groups of 4. Top two in each group advance and get redrawn into 2 groups of 5. Top 2 advance to World Cup, The two third place teams playoff and winner has to playoff against another region.
South America
9 teams play in a double round robin. Top 4 teams go to World Cup, 5th placed team has to playoff against another region.
CONCACAF
10 lowest teams playoff to get down to 5. Those 5 teams join the next best 19 teams in 6 groups of 4. The 6 group winner join the top 6 teams in 3 groups of 4. The top 2 teams in each group get put into 1 group of 6 (THE HEX!). Top 3 advance to World Cup, 4th placed team has to playoff against another region.
Oceania
4 lowest teams playoff in a single group to get down to 1. That 1 team joins the other 7 teams and plays in a tournament. The semifinalist of that tournament will then enter a group and the winner has to playoff against another region.
Got it?
Let's have a small challenge
A) Pick a team who has never qualified for the World Cup who will make it this time.
My pick is the aforementioned Burkina Faso from Africa.
B) Pick a cinderella team that has no chance to make the World Cup but you'll be rooting for and may spring a surprise.
My pick is Jordan from Asia, I think they can make the final 10 teams.
We'll see how everyone does by 2014!
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First results
CONCACAF
First leg
Monserrat 2-5 Belize
*Belize is current suspended and may be thrown out
ASIA
First Leg
Malaysia 2 - 1 Taiwan
Bangladesh 3 - 0 Pakistan
Cambodia 4 - 2 Laos
Sri Lanka 1 - 1 Philippines
Afghanistan 0 - 2 Palestine
Vietnam 6 - 0 Macao
Nepal 2 - 1 Timor-Leste
Mongolia 1 - 0 Myanmar