Le Injustice!

The French cry foul over FIFA's decision to place them in pot 2

Of course they do, we would - although I'd hope we'd have a little bit of humility after losing to Austria and only beating the Faroe Islands and Lithuania on the road, had they been in England's group they wouldn't have qualified, let alone been seeded

"...it looks like FIFA has punished France for the Thierry Henry handball against Ireland,” roared furious Goal.com France editor Alexandre Walraevens.

Leaving aside the fact that FIFA said they would use the October rankings months ago (rare that) and it was patently obvious to even my mother that the November rankings were unfair and rewarded teams for failing to win their group - why exactly is it unfair?

The argument is this: France got to the 2006 final! Give us a seed over Argentina, England and the Netherlands

Skipping the dismal exit in 2002 (and 2008 for that matter), it is also claimed it mattered that they won the 98 world cup - 12 years ago? FIFA haven't counted back three world cups since 2002 - I don't see why 1966 is more meaningless than 1998, it's all ancient history, Walraevens is the sort of man that would probably count 1986 too, while skipping 90 and 94, seeing as 2002 was apparently meaningless for the likes of Korea

While I do have sympathy for their plight, and I do dislike the way FIFA can choose their rules after the results, which is just plain wrong (in my mind it's playing the FA cup to the final and then announcing the winner as the team who scored the most goals overall) the very idea that France 'deserve' a spot is ridiculous, maybe Zidane deserves a spot on his own...but France

And remember I'm not hugely biased here - this is about the Netherlands, not us

FIFA had two options - go with the old method, and eject the 3rd ranked team, who qualified with a 100% win record, for the team that they smashed 4-1 in the latest tournament and who struggled in ridiculous fashion in the latest qualification

Or... go with the ranks - which while debatable, but were pretty fair - there's only nine teams that should really be considered for seeding, and if you had a toss-up between France and the Dutch who would you go for?

FIFA have been rather unethical here, playing with the rules to fit whatever they'd already decided, but they've got the result right - it's a case of the ends justifying the means, they need to keep the best teams in the world apart to keep the competition..well..a competition

Like I said, had this been us, cue outrage - but we aren't defending a MacLaren-level-idiot in Domenech and one of the patchiest string of results in Europe, nor a piece of cheating that made international news, they should be eating humble pie and be happy that they're in at all, it's no one's fault but their own (alright, it was Austria's, Romania's, and Serbia's) that they were ranked 9th - we were seventh despite not even playing in Euro 2008

There is no perfect system, ranks are flawed, using historical results is flawed - as such no one method will keep everyone happy, but on a balance of probabilities had the rigging been in favour of France it would've sparked far more outrage around the world - FIFA got the seven best performing teams at present, bar perhaps Argentina, the French don't have a leg to stand on, the Ivory Coast have more of a case

I shall leave with more from Walraevens:

“France are the most hated team in the world, everyone seems to be against us and I don’t understand why,”

Let me explain it to you:

“With respect to the other seeds, we think it is unbelievable and it looks like FIFA has punished France for the Thierry Henry handball against Ireland,” roared a furious Walraevens.

“Argentina has struggled like France, England has done virtually nothing in the World Cup since 1966. The same with The Netherlands.

“If France qualify then France should be seeded as they are the winners from 1998 and runners-up from 2006."

'Nuff said really