Didn't You Do Well...Now Go Away

Here's the thing : seeding in football - or any other sport for that matter - is a fair and reasonable thing to do.

Otherwise, you might end up with a World Cup 2010 qualification group that consisted of Germany, England, Spain and Russia. And, yes, while that may be more exciting than the World Cup itself, it's not unreasonable to keep the best teams apart in order to ensure a thrilling and competitive finals.

However, football is also a game of upsets. We all like to see the small teams prosper at the expense of the big boys.

And that is why FIFA's decision to seed the European play-off matches stinks to high heaven. They can justify this any way they like, but it's clearly motivated solely by money.

There was no announcement before the qualification matches took place that there would be seeding for the teams finishing second. It's only now when France, Portugal and Russia failed to win their groups, that this has been instituted.

It stinks. And I for one hope all the 'seeded' teams lose their play off matches.