England guaranteed seed if WC play-off is needed

I've looked at all the possible permutations of which teams may finish second in their groups
and looked at their current FIFA rankings (FIFA stated recently that it will be said rankings that will determine
the 4 seeded countries in the WC play-offs).

Now, if England don't win tonight then we'll finish second barring a major miracle in the San Marino/ Ukraine game.

The only countries that can finish second and that have higher rankings then ourselves are:
Croatia
Portugal
Greece
Russia
because Portugal and Russia are in the same group it means that England will be guaranteed one of the four seeds.

However that wouldn't necessarily mean an easy tie as France could be a possible opponent. On the other hand it
could be Iceland.

Now I've forgotten the reason I started this thread.

Of course, all this is purely academic if we stuff the Poles tonight....

 

Fifa have said that England would avoid the likes of France and Portugal as examples. Dont think we have to worry about the WC play-offs though.

 

When did FIFA announce this ?

 

Via SSN over the weekend. Said we would not play France and Portugal if it came to that.

The top 4 ranks involved will be drawn against the bottom 4 ranks.

Fifa rigging who gets to Rio by the sounds of it. But i dont expect England to need them.

England have a friendly game lined up for the November International Break between the 16-19th.

 

France will not be seeded so can happen.

 

Actually I need to retract.

France can still win their group and Spain finish second. That means England are NOT guaranteed a seed. It's now only highly likely

 

Either Fifa are talking bollocks or you've misinterpreted what they said. There's every chance France will not be seeded.

Moving on... If we happened to lose tonight, is there ANY chance either Sweden or France could go above us in the rankings? It doesn't look like it, looking at our respective ranking points tallies - so the only way we could miss out on a seeding would then be if Spain finished second in their group, as CH said. And that won't happen.

 

I really hope Iceland can qualify, they've come really far in the last few years and they have some really great players.

 

what tickles??? Like that could ever happen...............