Jump to content

2026 - Party in the U.S.A.


ArabFC

Recommended Posts

Realistically this will be the last shot for a bunch of our current key players to get to a World Cup - notably Robertson and McGinn would be 32 and McGregor 33.

And we're in as good a position as we've been since 96-98 to do it.

Does anyone know the seeding setup for qualifying? Don't want no play-offs, lets top that group!

If it's based on Nations League rankings then finishing 3rd (or above) in the 24/25 Nations League group would make us pot one and finishing last pot two. If it's on FIFA ranking then we're currently 16th, but with a realistic chance of making it to 12th (currently Sweden) for pot one.

Anyway, I'm going to every Scotland game now to ensure I can get tickets for the party. I did the same for Brazil, but hey-ho 😅

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, ArabFC said:

Realistically this will be the last shot for a bunch of our current key players to get to a World Cup - notably Robertson and McGinn would be 32 and McGregor 33.

And we're in as good a position as we've been since 96-98 to do it.

Does anyone know the seeding setup for qualifying? Don't want no play-offs, lets top that group!

If it's based on Nations League rankings then finishing 3rd (or above) in the 24/25 Nations League group would make us pot one and finishing last pot two. If it's on FIFA ranking then we're currently 16th, but with a realistic chance of making it to 12th (currently Sweden) for pot one.

Anyway, I'm going to every Scotland game now to ensure I can get tickets for the party. I did the same for Brazil, but hey-ho 😅

I’m sure FIFA seed by world rankings. As it stands I think we’d be in pot 2.

I think we’d need a really good euros and nations league campaign to threaten pot 1 in terms of world ranking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MarkoRaj said:

Group winners qualify directly

Runners up go into a play off with the top 4 nations league teams who don't qualify directly

Unless the rules have changed slightly, the 4 NL slots go to the best 4 group winners rather than the best 4 teams altogether. Given that there’s 24 slots to be filled through the main qualifying tournament for either direct qualification or the playoffs, you’d have to think at least one or two of the league C group winners will get a playoff.

 

At the moment we are 17th in UEFA which is in the middle of pot 2. We’d need to climb 5 slots to sneak into pot 1. 3 of the 5 teams directly above us have a fairly significant risk of missing the euros (Sweden almost certain to miss out, and both Ukraine and Poland are likely relying on the playoffs) so hopefully we’d have a chance to climb above some of them. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sure the rules are different for Uefa competition Vs FIFA

From wiki

Play-off stage: 16 teams (twelve group runners-up and four best Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League overall ranking, that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group) will be drawn into four play-off paths, playing two rounds of single-match playoffs (semi-finals with the seeded teams to host, followed by finals, with the home teams to be drawn). The four path winners will qualify for the World Cup finals

League A

Rnk Teamvte Pld Pts

1 Nations League Finals 1st place 0 0

2 Nations League Finals 2nd place 0 0

3 Nations League Finals 3rd place 0 0

4 Nations League Finals 4th place 0 0

5 1st best quarter-final loser 0 0

6 2nd best quarter-final loser 0 0

7 3rd best quarter-final loser 0 0

8 4th best quarter-final loser 0 0

9 1st best group 3rd place 0 0

10 2nd best group 3rd place 0 0

11 3rd best group 3rd place 0 0

12 4th best group 3rd place 0 0

13 1st best group 4th place 0 0

14 2nd best group 4th place 0 0

15 3rd best group 4th place 0 0

16 4th best group 4th place 0 0

League B

Rnk Teamvte Pld Pts

17 1st best group 1st place 0 0

18 2nd best group 1st place 0 0

19 3rd best group 1st place 0 0

20 4th best group 1st place 0 0

21 1st best group 2nd place 0 0

22 2nd best group 2nd place 0 0

23 3rd best group 2nd place 0 0

24 4th best group 2nd place 0 0

25 1st best group 3rd place 0 0

26 2nd best group 3rd place 0 0

27 3rd best group 3rd place 0 0

28 4th best group 3rd place 0 0

29 1st best group 4th place 0 0

30 2nd best group 4th place 0 0

31 3rd best group 4th place 0 0

32 4th best group 4th place 0 0

League C

Rnk Teamvte Pld Pts

33 1st best group 1st place 0 0

34 2nd best group 1st place 0 0

35 3rd best group 1st place 0 0

36 4th best group 1st place 0 0

37 1st best group 2nd place 0 0

38 2nd best group 2nd place 0 0

39 3rd best group 2nd place 0 0

40 4th best group 2nd place 0 0

41 1st best group 3rd place 0 0

42 2nd best group 3rd place 0 0

43 3rd best group 3rd place 0 0

44 4th best group 3rd place 0 0

45 1st best group 4th place 0 0

46 2nd best group 4th place 0 0

47 3rd best group 4th place 0 0

48 4th best group 4th place 0 0

League D

Rnk Teamvte Pld Pts

49 1st best group 1st place 0 0

50 2nd best group 1st place 0 0

51 1st best group 2nd place 0 0

52 2nd best group 2nd place 0 0

53 1st best group 3rd place 0 0

54 2nd best group 3rd place 0 0

55 Group D1 4th place 0 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So group winners of the lower leagues don't actually matter too much because they're still behind League A no matter what

It's difficult to see 3rd place in league A not guaranteeing a play off

Good chance all League A participants should be in with a shout tbh

Edited by MarkoRaj
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In which case that has changed since the last World Cup.

 

Austria and Czech Republic (both league B group winners) were given the two playoff spots for nations league teams whereas Bosnia-Herzegovina, a league A team at the time, missed out entirely. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seeding won't be determined for over a year, so still plenty of time for us to move up (or down). It seems like it'll still be exclusively group winners for the Nations League play-off spot, but with the changes to the qualifying format the quality of 3rd seed should be a bit lower than in the current format (25th-36th best rather than 21st-30th best).

Edited by craigkillie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Seeding won't be determined for over a year, so still plenty of time for us to move up (or down). It seems like it'll still be exclusively group winners for the Nations League play-off spot, but with the changes to the qualifying format the quality of 3rd seed should be a bit lower than in the current format (25th-36th best rather than 21st-30th best).

If the draw was today:

 

Pot 1 - France, England, Belgium, Croatia, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Ukraine

 

Pot 2 - Austria, Serbia, Poland, Scotland, Hungary, Wales, Czech Republic, Turkey, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Greece

 

Pot 3 - Finland, Ireland, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Israel, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Georgia

 

Pot 4 - Luxembourg, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kosovo, Estonia, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Lithuania, Andorra

 

Pot 5 - Moldova, Malta, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, San Marino

 

I don’t think we should be too worried about any of those pot 3 teams so I’d back us to get at least a playoff. Slovenia and Albania would be the trickiest customers as both are rapidly improving sides. Conversely there’s a few pot 1 teams that I’d back us to go and win the group over. Sweden in particular are guff and their current world ranking being so good tells me that the ranking system is based over way too long of a period to be particularly relevant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

f**k me.

It’s never too early to be thinking ahead. Indeed, taking the Nations League seriously is a big part of the reason why we’ve gotten where we are not (both in terms of euro 2020 where we got in through the playoffs, and doing well in the most recent instance to clinch a pot 2 seeding for the upcoming euros) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, MarkoRaj said:

Group winners qualify directly

Runners up go into a play off with the top 4 nations league teams who don't qualify directly

The fact there are now 12 groups rather than 10 should increase our chances of winning a group slightly.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Donathan said:

If the draw was today:

 

Pot 1 - France, England, Belgium, Croatia, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Ukraine

 

Pot 2 - Austria, Serbia, Poland, Scotland, Hungary, Wales, Czech Republic, Turkey, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Greece

 

Pot 3 - Finland, Ireland, Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Israel, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Georgia

 

Pot 4 - Luxembourg, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kosovo, Estonia, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Lithuania, Andorra

 

Pot 5 - Moldova, Malta, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, San Marino

 

I don’t think we should be too worried about any of those pot 3 teams so I’d back us to get at least a playoff. Slovenia and Albania would be the trickiest customers as both are rapidly improving sides. Conversely there’s a few pot 1 teams that I’d back us to go and win the group over. Sweden in particular are guff and their current world ranking being so good tells me that the ranking system is based over way too long of a period to be particularly relevant.

So group winners qualify, then all 2nd placed teams go into a playoff format along with 4 NL teams?

Edited by Honest_Man#1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Donathan said:

Conversely there’s a few pot 1 teams that I’d back us to go and win the group over. Sweden in particular are guff and their current world ranking being so good tells me that the ranking system is based over way too long of a period to be particularly relevant.

It uses the chess ELO system now which means every match there is a multiplier applied to your current rating based on the same factors as before. It means there is no timescale or drop-off of previous games, so yes I think that will mean that it will take a long time for historic matches to level out.

We're certainly gaining on them though

September 2018

Scotland 1448

Sweden 1550

September 2023

Scotland 1522

Sweden 1538

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...