Click here for Live Streaming

The internets are currently overflowing with World Cup 2010 mock draws and pretend groups of death right now. But don’t get confused. The draw for the eight groups of World Cup 2010 groups has not happened yet, and will not happen until Friday, December 4th, 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The four teams in each group will be drawn from four separate “pots” each containing eight teams, so as to keep the better teams away from each other in the group stage. So if, for example, Brazil and Spain are in Pot 1, they’ll definitely avoid each other in the group stage.

Despite all the mock draws, no one actually knows for sure which teams will be in which pots, and we won’t know until December 2nd. Here’s what FIFA has to say:

The detailed criteria to determine the seeded teams for the Final Draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ will be confirmed at the next meeting of the Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup™ in Cape Town on 2 December 2009 (and announced at a press conference following the meeting).

Got that?

So, rather than doing mock draw based on shaky guesswork, I thought it would be more interesting to argue discuss which team should be in which pot ahead of the draw.

The only rule right now is that our World Cup hosts South Africa will definitely be seeded in Pot 1. Might seem unfair as they’re absolutely not amongst the best eight teams in the world, or even close, but that’s the reward they get for building all those stadia and inviting the rest of us to come over and visit for the month.

So… here are the 32 teams of World Cup 2010, in alphabetical order:

Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Cameroon
Chile
Cote d’Ivoire
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Honduras
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
North Korea
New Zealand
Nigeria
Paraguay
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Switzerland
United States
Uruguay

And here’s what I’m asking/inviting you to do: Based on how you think the four pots either will be or should be divided, please do one of the following:

1. Split the 32 teams into four pots of eight (Pot 1 is the strongest, Pot 4 the weakest), or
2. Tell us the eight “seeded” teams you’d place in Pot 1.

To be clear, this is just a rumour right now. Nothing more, and certainly nothing official. Plus Guus Hiddink is officially contracted to the Russian national team until July 2010. So let’s not get carried away. But…

…There are whispers being whispered that the Argentine Football Association may approach Guus Hiddink and offer him a role coaching Argentina alongside Diego Maradona at World Cup 2010. I’ll let that sink in for a second.

This rumour seem to have appeared because Diego Maradona and his #2 Carlos Bilardo apparently aren’t getting on. Bilardo isn’t just any assistant, he doesn’t just put the cones out in training. He helps El Diego with tactics etcetera. And so he’s at least partially to blame for Argentina’s World Cup qualifying shambles.

Plus, Hiddink’s Russia narrowly missed out on World Cup 2010 (on away goals to Slovenia) so he won’t have a team at World Cup 2010. The Dutchman has coached at the last three World Cup with three different teams (Netherlands, South Korea and Australia) and he certainly wasn’t planning to miss this one.

No doubt that Maradona and Hiddink would be an odd couple. I’m not quite sure what one would make of the other. But as a neutral, I’m hoping this doesn’t come to pass.

Here’s why:

I’d much much prefer to see Hiddink coaching a less fancied team at World Cup 2010. Just because having Hiddink will give that team a fighting chance. In many many ways he would have been the perfect coach for the South African team before they rehired Carlos Alberto Parreira.

More importantly, if Hiddink is co-coach then it ruins The Diego Maradona Experience. And I was looking forward to The Diego Maradona Experience at World Cup 2010. Because he’ll definitely deliver something dramatic. Either a complete disaster or a glorious triumph. Hiddink would do a lot take the edge off that. As a neutral I’d prefer the drama, but I can understand if Argentina fans feel differently.

Last but not least, it ruins the potential Maradona narrative and robs El Diego of his shot at glory. Because if Argentina win the World Cup under Diego Maradona, then that’s a story to remember. If they win it with Hiddink, then it’s Hiddink’s World Cup, and not quite as exciting.

Didn’t Sir Alex just finish lecturing the FA on their media overexposure of Wayne Rooney? Apparently, shedding a little bit of limelight his way isn’t much of an issue at all. The Scot didn’t mince words when picking his favorite to win the 2010 World Cup.

“I can’t see past Brazil, actually,” Ferguson was quoted in the Daily Mail. “They are going to be the ones in South Africa.”

And the opinions are well founded in his belief that the Premiership is becoming less and less about developing English players, and more about contracting outsiders to become champions. Add on to that the continual pipeline of great Brazilian players being exported into foreign systems, and even this Argie would have a hard time denying his logic.

“Last season, there were 103 Brazilians in the Champions League and only 15 Englishmen. More Scots played in the Champions League last season than English players. I thought the 11/10 on Brazil to beat England was the bet of the century.”

Ouch. But Fergie has never been one to mince words.

What are your thoughts on Sir Alex’s early prediction?

The groups for the Africa Cup of Nations 2010 were drawn today, which should go at least some way to cheering up teams like Egypt and Tunisia who very narrowly missed the World Cup 2010 boat.

The tournament takes place in Angola from January 10th to January 31st, 2010. We’ve got blogs and bloggers for 12 of the 16 teams involved in the tournament. If you’d like to blog for one of the bloggerless teams then see the bottom of this post for details.

The Angola 2010 groups and match schedule are after the jump.

Click the links to visit the team blogs:


Africa Cup of Nations 2010 Groups

Group A:
Angola
Mali
Malawi
Algeria

Group B:
Cote d’Ivoire
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Togo

Group C:
Egypt
Nigeria
Mozambique
Benin

Group D:
Cameroon
Gabon
Zambia
Tunisia

Africa Cup of Nations 2010 Schedule:

#01 – Jan 10th, Angola vs Mali (Group A) 17:00 kickoff

#02 – Jan 11th, Malawi vs Algeria (Group A) 14:45
#03 – Jan 11th, Cote d’Ivoire vs Burkina Faso (Group B) 17:00
#04 – Jan 11th, Ghana vs Togo (Group B) 19:30

#05 – Jan 12th, Egypt vs Nigeria (Group C) 17:00
#06 – Jan 12th, Mozambique vs Benin (Group C) 19:30

#07 – Jan 13th, Cameroon vs Gabon (Group D) 17:00
#08 – Jan 13th, Zambia vs Tunisia (Group D) 19:30

#09 – Jan 14th, Mali vs Algeria (Group A) 17:00
#10 – Jan 14th, Angola vs Malawi (Group A) 19:30

#11 – Jan 15th, Burkina Faso vs Togo (Group B) 17:00
#12 – Jan 15th, Cote d’Ivoire vs Ghana (Group B) 19:30

#13 – Jan 16th, Nigeria vs Benin (Group C) 17:00
#14 – Jan 16th, Gabon vs Tunisia (Group C) 19:30

#15 – Jan 17th, Gabon vs Tunisa (Group D) 17:00
#16 – Jan 17th, Cameroon vs Zambia (Group D) 19:30

#17 – Jan 18th, Angola vs Algeria (Group A) 17:00
#18 – Jan 18th, Mali vs Malawi (Group A) 17:00

#19 – Jan 19th, Burkina Faso vs Ghana (Group B) 17:00
#20 – Jan 19th, Cote d’Ivoire vs Togo (Group B) 17:00

#21 – Jan 20th, Egypt vs Benin (Group C) 17:00
#22 – Jan 20th, Nigeria vs Mozambique (Group C) 17:00

#23 – Jan 21st, Cameroon vs Tunisia (Group D) 17:00
#24 – Jan 21st, Gabon vs Zambia (Group D) 17:00

Quarter-Finals‘

#25 – Jan 24th, 1st A vs 2nd B, 17:00
#26 – Jan 24th, 1st B vs 2nd A, 20:30

#27 – Jan 25th, 1st C vs 2nd D, 17:00
#28 – Jan 25th, 2st D vs 2nd C, 20:30
(Official website says games #27, #28 are on Jan 24th, but that seems very unlikely)

Semi-Finals
#29 – Jan 28th, Winner #25 vs Winner #28, 17:00
#30 – Jan 28th, Winner #26 vs Winner #27, 20:30

Third place playoff
#31 – Jan 30th, Loser #29 vs Loser #30, 17:00

Final
#32 – Jan 31st, Winner #29 vs Winner #30, 17:00

Source: Official CAN 2010 website.

Time difference: Angola is GMT+1. So it’s one hour ahead of the UK and six hours ahead of US eastern. So… a 17:00 (5pm) kickoff in Angola is 4pm in the UK and 11am on the east coast of the US.

Details on how and where to watch the tournament as and when we get them.

If you’re interested in blogging for one of the bloggerless Angola 2010 teams, then have a read of our application guidelines here and then get in touch.