World Cup seeds: Netherlands, Italy, England receive shock

The Netherlands, Italy and England suffered their first shock at the 2014 World Cup finals when they were not seeded. Meanwhile, teams like Colombia, Belgium and Switzerland naturally gained an advantage.

Based on the FIFA rankings just announced in October, FIFA has identified 7 seeded teams for the 2014 World Cup finals, taking place in Brazil, including Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Switzerland and host team Brazil.

The remaining seed will be determined after a two-match play-off between Uruguay and Jordan. If they beat Jordan, Uruguay will be the final seed, but otherwise the seed will go to the Netherlands, the world runners-up and currently ranked eighth in the rankings.

Italy and the Netherlands were not seeded at the 2014 World Cup. (Source: Getty Images)

This is a real shock for the "big guys" of world football such as the Netherlands, Italy and England. It is even more shocking to know that the Netherlands and Italy are the first two teams from Europe to win tickets to Brazil. If compared, these three teams have a much better record in the World Cup finals than Colombia, Belgium and Switzerland.

The Netherlands are the current world runners-up, Italy are the 2006 World Cup champions and the 2012 EURO runners-up, and England are also doing quite well. Meanwhile, Colombia has not qualified for the World Cup for 16 years, Belgium for 12 years, and Switzerland were eliminated in the group stage of the 2010 World Cup.

Uruguay were even seeded despite having to qualify for Brazil in the play-off against Jordan. Many experts believe that this is really unfair and unreasonable based on the FIFA rankings.

Remember, in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, the Netherlands and Germany were the two teams with the best records (9 wins and 1 draw, after 10 matches), Italy was also undefeated with 6 wins and 4 draws. Meanwhile, Uruguay only won 7 out of the total 16 matches they had to play (which means less than half).

With the Netherlands, Italy and England (not to mention the possibility of Portugal and France winning tickets), the appearance of the group of death in the 2014 World Cup finals is inevitable.

Currently, the 2014 World Cup finals have determined 21 teams, including Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador (South America); Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, England, Bosnia and Spain (Europe); the US, Costa Rica and Honduras (CONCACAF), Japan, South Korea, Australia, Iran (Asia) and the host team Brazil./.

According to (Vietnam+) - DT