Sepp Seeding Scandal

During the summer of 2008, you sit at home watching the rain fall outside your window; the TV is on in the background transmitting football matches from a distant place, where only those who have withstood the task of qualifying have managed to arrive at. Spain beat Germany in the final to be crowned European Champions, yet realistically you do not care. The only thing that keeps you going is that the draw for the World cup qualifiers is just around the corner. The opportunity to join the mighty teams from around the World in the most epic of sporting competitions is upon you.
So you sit and wait, and wait some more, and eventually the time comes for the draw to be made. Jubilation turns to devastation when you discover that England have another easy route to qualification, however hope returns when you remember that they failed to make it to Austria and Switzerland too. Hope becomes nervous tension as your country still has not been drawn and then you see it, your ball being plucked by some FIFA representative, your fate is sealed.
Scotland found themselves looking at a favourable draw; the chance to make it to South Africa 2010 was there for the taking. Netherlands would of course pip them to first spot, but a play-off spot was within reach. Wales was always going to find it hard and getting drawn with Germany and Russia in their group, qualification seemed an unlikely dream. Yet, the same could be said for Northern Ireland, a small country with little chance of progress. However, with only one game to go in the group stages, there is still a slight possibility that their road to South Africa may not have come to a dead end.
For Republic of Ireland the play-offs were definitely a target. Winning the group would be a challenge with Italy among the opponents. Yet, with a world class manager in the name of Giovanni Trapattoni anything was possible. However, although the pushed Italy all the way, they did eventually fail to overcome that rather large obstacle to claim an automatic spot in the draw for the World Cup. But unfortunately for them, other “big” teams were struggling against so called “lesser” nations. France and Portugal both have failed to hit the top spot and even Germany at times looked doomed to a one-on-one match up in November. How could we ever have a tournament though without some of its so-called main players?
Evidentially I was not the only one to jump to such a conclusion as Sepp Blatter announced that the play-off games would be drawn on a seeded basis, leaving Ireland once again, in a bit of a pickle. This new addition now means that Ireland is likely to face another uphill battle to reach South Africa simply because some of the already seeded teams, in other groups, are failing to live up to their seeded reputations. Surely the fact that these teams have all finished in second place, means they are all equal and so deserve no preferential treatment off the pitch for losing on the pitch?
Yet, Sepp feels differently. One is not denying that Irish fans are likely to be feeling similar emotions to what they felt in summer, eagerly anticipating whom they shall face in the play-offs. However, surely they should have earned the right to have just as much chance of playing Bosnia as they do of facing France? Blatter feels otherwise. But then again he is the man who wanted women to wear tighter shorts, so clearly he has a sensible mind when it comes to the games big issues…