FAN ARTICLES
Will we be seeded?
Comments (9) : Now that the draw for the InterToto Cup has been made, and we know exactly who is in and who isn't, the picture may be starting to clear a bit.
Using the figures given in that European Competitions website we've all been looking at, I've taken these and the draw for the various competitions (including the CL Qualifiers) and, using the assumption that the higher ranked team will always win their tie, tried to determine where we will end up.
Based on that assumption, we would be currently ranked as 36th out of 40. However, were we are finally ranked will depend on several factors, namely:
11 teams who have to play in the qualifying stages of the UEFA Cup (or have to play in the InterToto Cup) are ranked higher than us, and if any of them get beat then we will move up a place. These teams are FC Basel, RC Lens, Zenit St. Petersburg, Blackburn Rovers, SV Hamburg, Slavia Prague, Partizan Belgrade, Maccabi Haifa, Austria Vienna, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (who are from Ukraine by the way), Sampdoria and Galatasary.
Additionally, there are 23 Champions League qualifiers who are ranked higher than us. Again, assuming the higher ranked team will always win, this will mean that 7 of them are already ranked above us (the reason we are in 36th place), leaving 9 potential teams who are ranked lower than us, and, if they somehow manage to win their third round qualifying match would see us fall another place.
So, basically, we can be ranked anywhere from 25th to 52nd at the moment - although to get to 52nd place would take some seriously major upsets happening in the Champions League qualifiers.
As the rounds progress the picture will become a lot clearer, and I'll try and keep you all updated on our "seeding progress" throughout the remainder of the summer.
On a good note, at least it gives us a reason to be a bit more interested in the results of the earlier rounds in June and July (by the way, the first round of the InterToto is on Saturday!)
Reader Comments (9)
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
2 Posted 21/06/2007 at 18:22:47
3 Posted 21/06/2007 at 19:09:09
4 Posted 22/06/2007 at 00:19:59
5 Posted 22/06/2007 at 02:35:21
Seeding matters. Progression in the UEFA Cup matters. Current squad is good enough to compete in this company - Middlesborough got to the finals last year. Granted we will struggle to do well in the league and in the UEFA Cup without deepening the squad, but transfer inactivity will not affect early round results. Anyway we need to be patient on the transfer front, it is a sellers market this summer and probably we should be cautious and try and maintain squad morale and not be too ambitious. Top six and UEFA cup quarter finals would be a good result. Boring, not glory, but realistic. Let the newly rich blow their money this year and then drown in debts and high salaries. Its happened before.
6 Posted 22/06/2007 at 10:49:17
Slavia Prague qualified for CL 2nd quali round so they should be one of the 23 Champions League qualifiers who are ranked higher than us(it’s 11 teams now..)
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid will also played in the Inter-toto cup and they are having a higher ranking hen us.(so it’s 12 again)
7 Posted 22/06/2007 at 12:37:43
8 Posted 22/06/2007 at 12:38:10
All 16 teams coming down from the CL could be ranked above us (including the RS hopefully), but the lowest we could drop is still 45th (7 of the ’likely’ 35 above us are coming from CL, plus possible 9 extra)
9 Posted 25/06/2007 at 22:06:26
Add Your Comments
In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.
Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.
1 Posted 21/06/2007 at 17:56:05
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/seeduc2007.html