France, Portugal, Russia and Greece seeded for European playoffs to reach World Cup
By APFriday, October 16, 2009
Seeds named for European World Cup playoffs
ZURICH — France, Portugal, Russia and Greece will be seeded in the playoffs to decide the final four European spots at the 2010 World Cup.
They were the four highest-ranked of the playoff teams in the FIFA world rankings published Friday, meaning they cannot face each other in the two-legged playoffs on Nov. 14 and 18.
Instead they will be paired against the four non-seeded teams — Ukraine, Ireland, Bosnia and Slovenia — with the draw to be announced Monday.
FIFA was criticized for waiting until last month before deciding to seed the playoffs.
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