The Organizing Committee unanimously agreed on the principle of drawing lots for the 2002 World Cup and adopted the same principle for the 1998 World Cup in France. Among them, two factors are mainly considered in establishing a seed team: the first is the results of three World Cups, namely 1990, 1994 and 1998, and the multiplication coefficients are 1, 2 and 3, namely 1990 World Cup. Then consider the 1998 World Cup and FIFA year-end rankings in the last three years, that is, the rankings of 1999, 2000,2001. Then, according to the ranking of each team, except the defending champions France and Japan and South Korea, the top five became the other five seed teams. According to this integral method, Brazil scored 62 points, Argentina scored 56 points, Italy scored 56 points, Germany scored 54 points and Spain scored 54 points. These five teams became seed teams and first-class teams. The first team is as follows: France, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Spain.
The second file consists of 1 1 European teams. When drawing lots, eight teams were drawn from this 1 1 team and arranged in each group, and the remaining three teams were naturally classified into the third gear. They will join three other teams in South America, Paraguay, Uruguay and Ecuador, and two teams in Asia, China and Saudi Arabia, to form a third-class team, and then draw lots to decide. The fourth-grade team will consist of five African teams, namely, Nigerian team, Tunisia team, Cameroonian team, South African team and Senegalese team, plus three teams from Central and North America, namely, Caribbean team, Mexican team, American team and Costa Rica team. In this way, the classification of FIFA is fully revealed. FIFA will draw lots in groups from the first gear to the fourth gear on June 5438+February 1 day.
The drawing procedure is: start with the first seed team, then draw 1 1 European team, then draw the third team and then draw the fourth team.
Lu Feining said that the principle of group drawing is unanimously agreed by the FIFA Executive Committee, and there are three other important principles: First, as this World Cup will be held in Japan and South Korea for the first time, the group drawing will adopt the principle of balance, that is, whether European teams, South American teams, Asian teams or Central and North American teams will play in Japan and South Korea as balanced as possible.
The second principle is that, in principle, when European teams draw lots in groups, there can only be two European teams in the same group at most, and there cannot be a third European team.
Thirdly, FIFA once again emphasizes that teams from the same continent (except European teams) are absolutely not allowed to appear in the same group.
After introducing FIFA's group draw procedure, Rufeining also stressed that FIFA has decided at this FIFA Executive Committee meeting that no matter what happens in the group draw in the future, China must play in South Korea, which means that China can only play in the first to fourth groups. According to the above, teams from the same continent cannot be in the same group, which means that China can only play in the first group, the second group, or the third group and the third group.
Ru Feining answered the reporter's question after introducing the principle of group drawing in detail. The news that the domestic media predicted that China and South Korea would be grouped together soon spread in the local press circle in Busan. An Italian journalist also specifically mentioned this issue, saying that someone in FIFA said in an interview with China media reporters yesterday that China and South Korea would be in a group. Is that so? According to what I said just now, adopt the principle of balance. If China and South Korea are in a group, does it mean that Saudi Arabia should also be in a group with Japan? In response to this question, FIFA Secretary-General Rufinin said, "I have actually answered this question just now, that is, teams from the same continent cannot be in the same group, that is, China and South Korea, or Saudi Arabia and Japan cannot be in the same group."