ATWC : The All-Time World Cup. Foreword, Seeding, Final Draw.

 

Maybe it’s time to start an ALL-TIME WORLD CUP ?

And why not a 48-team tournament, in this case ?

So here it is, the FYT ATWC.

The 23-man squads are built with players that can be from all times, not just a specific team of one tournament.

Of course, the strongest nations (at least on the paper) will be or could be even stronger but it should be the case for all the countries. That way, maybe the supposed gap between the teams doesn’t increase, maybe it’s even reduced a bit ?

Let's see. In any case, there will be no pre-conceived history for this tournament, which starts with the final draw which was done randomly online, once the seeding pots were made (see below).

As with the seeding pots, the players selections are 100% FYT-made, so there's of course a part of subjectivity - that essential element in football ;-). It was made as seriously as possible though, for it can be fun, actually.

That is for the players selections or the results of the games, the achievements/ performances of the players at the World Cup count for sure but maybe sometimes it’s better to not pick a player who had two great World Cup games and did nothing outside of this and to prefer a player who did nothing special (or just a few) there and noticeably performed well in other competitions, that is for club and/ or country. 

Each country squad is an all-time squad and not a specific all-time World Cup squad, although the greatest tournament counts, for sure.

Then, above the individuals, it’s also still about how the collective could work and about the possible match-ups, obviously. 

Of course, some historical or classical combinations of players have survived the selections but others... not. That's one of the effects that are difficult to avoid when playing an all-time game.

THE SEEDING (compact version at the end): 

No ultra-scientific methodology was used but it's studied a bit though : by looking at a mix of the all-time table (G/ W/ D/ L, GF/ GA, Diff, Pts) and by looking at the best runs and number of good runs in the tournament (plus eventually at the continental level if not enough).

That was a debate between FYT and FYT of course but it's still open to debate at your place of course, or why not in the comments section. 

As with some peculiar points like : must East Germany be an individual team (knowing that they’re outside of the top-48 by now) ? It was decided to have one German team with The DDR team's players being eligible. For the former-Czechoslovakia, former-USSR and former-Yugoslavia, it was decided to have three compiled teams consisting of the former country and the independant countries. Does it enhance their powers for all that ? It is unfair competition to the 44 other teams ? Here are some questions that can  be debated. But the choice was made. Meanwhile, there's no Great Britain team, for example.

A last point about the choice for a 48-team tournaments (before presenting the 4 seeding pots) : maybe it's too much, but it has also the advantage of not leaving out anyone's (or almost) favorite team or teams, or simply teams that we can't imagine being left aside (which somehow comes to the same) from such an event. 

In advance, sorry if your favorite team or teams or one of your favorites is not among these 48 teams.

THE SEEDING POTS :

POT 1 (in order, numbered from 1 to 12 from left to right but just shown in line like this, with no numbering, to gain space and readabiltiy).

Brazil – Germany – Italy – Argentina – France – Uruguay – England – Spain – Netherlands – Hungary – Czechoslovakia – Sweden

Eventually, only the table for the achievements was used here for the 12 firsts (leaving this way, maybe, more room for an exciting draw as opposed to almost planify the results). 

Now, after this first link, here is the all-time table (PTS, W/D/L, GF/ GA).

With the achievements table, Czechoslovakia and Sweden are send to pot 1 instead of Belgium and Mexico.

The « x nation at the World Cup » Wiki articles were are also used as a basis of reflection.

From now on, all of the choices won't be explained or justified though (the comments section is open to debate this). Is that the tournament will have to kick off at one point !

POT 2 (in order...)

Yugoslavia – Poland – Belgium – Portugal – Soviet Union – Austria – Chile – Denmark – Switzerland – Mexico – U.S.A. – South Korea

As possibly quite a team boosted to a « super-team », Yugoslavia could be in the pot 1 but generally, that is with Yugoslavia or by now with Croatia, the top-seeders very often preferred/ prefer to avoid them. Same story with the USSR, at the time of the USSR.

To avoid any dilemma between South Korea, Mexico, the U.S and Switzerland... Bulgaria, Morocco and Turkey will be in pot 3 in spite of their respective semi-finals. These three countries also participated in less tournaments.

As Euro Tournament Winners in addition to their World Cup history, Denmark have been «upgraded » if we just stick to the all-time table (that one which only consists in the pts. etc.). Switzerland too as they were present at the World Cup across several eras. The Swiss were also randomly seeded in pot 1, in 2014. As for Mexico and the USA, they « traditionally » end up there.

POT 3 (in order)

Morocco – Bulgaria – Turkey – Paraguay – Cameroon – Peru – Japan – Romania – Costa-Rica – Colombia – Senegal – Nigeria

Finishing at the 3rd place or at the 4th place after the semi-finals is quite random so Turkey ranks after Bulgaria and Morocco in the numbering of this pot. Turkey also has more wins than Bulgaria in way less games but it was against less prestigious opponents than Bulgaria who have beaten the then two last World Champions, in ‘94. Morocco is ranked ahead of the two other semi-finalists for they just won more points (and beat good teams too).

After this trio, it becomes more subjective and maybe too long to explain. But the footprint left on the competition is very important (think Cameroon who belong to this pot in the all-time table anyway, to start with, but also Peru who should not be outside, by this lone logic).

In my view, Cameroon logically goes past Colombia (think the Italia ‘90 direct confrontation too) but do not go past Paraguay who are themselves hard to tame.

Peru is in these twelve teams instead of Scotland (3-1 for Peru in ‘78). As for the other teams, they all left a mark that surpass the Scottish win over Holland in the last groups game of ‘78 (which doesn’t counter balance their overall record enough). Anyway, Scotland will be there too. Just, it will be in pot 4, with other British Isles teams by the way (and everything still can happen at the start of a new competition).

Costa-Rica, in addition to other exploits also beat Scotland in ‘90, for instance.

Costa-Rica has more « scalps » than Romania but the latter played more knockout stage matches, so Romania inherits of the number 8 in this pot, and Costa-Rica is assigned the number 9.

POT 4 (in order)

Republic Of Ireland – Algeria – Ghana – Wales – Northern Ireland – Saudi Arabia – Scotland – Ecuador – Australia – Norway – South Africa – Tunisia

In the last package of teams from which to extract the last 12 qualified teams, more than ever, the cold logic of the all-time table cannot be satisfying (or it can be, but I supposed not completely so... some decisions were made, based on arguments that are always debatable... but it's done).

Here is this whole last package of teams to have played at the World Cup :
Scotland (as not picked already), Ghana, Ecuador, Australia, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, Ivory Coast, South Africa…
Norway, East Germany (compiled with West Germany and Germany), Greece, Ukraine, Wales, Cuba, North-Korea, Jamaica, New Zealand, Honduras, Angola, Israël, Egypt, Iceland, Kuwaït, Trinidad & Tobago, Bolivia, Iraq, Togo, Qatar, Dutch East Indies, Panama, UA Emirates, China, Canada, Haïti, DR Congo (Zaïre in ’74), El Salvador and soon Curaçao, Jordan, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan (at the moment of writing, New Caledonia and Suriname were still in the running to participate in their first World Cup finals ever, by the way. Now that the play-offs are all done, we know that they did not qualify. Next time, maybe).

So, in brief, I selected Wales (memorable quarter-finalists) and also fished-out Norway instead of Iran (in spite of Iran beating Wales in 2022, and again Tunisia instead of Iran, and Ivory Coast who were eliminated since the groups at the last second in 2010). Or Tunisia was maintained in the 48 in front of North Korea more especially maybe (longevity against peak... the debate between FYT and FYT, to start with, remains very open...the last spot is very open...).
FYT had to re-rank almost the whole thing too in order to assign a number to each team (in a subjective mix of objective and what has to be more subjective reasons).

FYT kept the notes about his choices for the last spots : 40 lines with results and highlights for each team so they can be compared rather quickly (before looking at them more in depth if needed).

SEEDING RECAP (the compact way) :

POT 1 :

Brazil – Germany – Italy – Argentina – France – Uruguay – England – Spain – Netherlands – Hungary – Czechoslovakia – Sweden

POT 2 :

Yugoslavia – Poland – Belgium – Portugal – Soviet Union – Austria – Chile – Denmark – Switzerland – Mexico – U.S.A. – South Korea

POT 3

Morocco – Bulgaria – Turkey – Paraguay – Cameroon – Peru – Japan – Romania – Costa-Rica – Colombia – Senegal – Nigeria

POT 4

Republic Of Ireland – Algeria – Ghana – Wales – Northern Ireland – Saudi Arabia – Scotland – Ecuador – Australia – Norway – South Africa – Tunisia

The (totally unplanned) distribution :

UEFA (25) : Germany, Italy, France, England, Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Sweden (1), Yugoslavia, Poland, Belgium, Portugal, Soviet Union, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland (2), Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania (3), Republic Of Ireland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Norway (4).

COMNEBOL (8) : Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay (1), Chile (2), Peru, Paraguay, Colombia (3), Ecuador (4)

CAF (8) : Morocco, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria (3), Algeria, Ghana, South Africa, Tunisia (4)

AFC + OFC (4) : South-Korea (2), Japan (3), Saudi Arabia (4), Australia (4).

CONCACAF (3) : Mexico (2), USA (2), Costa-Rica (3).

RULE : in this 48-team tournament, the Comnebol, Caf, Concacaf and AFC + OFC teams can’t face other teams of their confederation in the groups.

AND NOW... THE FINAL DRAW !

The teams from each pot were re-shuffled on some website online in order to form the groups.

Initially meant as a test, it looked good so I kept it as the final draw. Also, luckily, there was not much shifting to do in order to avoid Comnebol, Caf, Concacaf and AFC + OFC confrontations, so it was really nice.

There are challenging games in every groups and good chances to go through (at least as best third-placed) for all the teams (or say, almost all the teams if we don’t believe in surprises).
Only one country is super-clear favorite for the number one spot in his group (on the paper at least, but they look quite lucky) and 5 others are in good position to do so (on the paper, still) which means 6 of them could have a more difficult first round.
5 groups have three European teams, 3 have 2 and 4 have 1. Maybe there’s something to do about it but I think it’s fair as it is… could hardly be more balanced and also somehow a little unbalanced as in reality, with always some groups who can look easier or harder, but it’s really thin differences globally, especially with 48 teams.
In any case, this draw doesn’t look like an orchestrated/ planned thing, especially since all the teams had to be amongst the best ever (and since it was actually not decided by FYT). 

The top-seeding teams always have an advantage (especially all-time with their depth of players) but the story is not written in advance or pre-made.

FYT did not make the knockout-stage table for now by the way, which is explained HERE.

AND NOW, FOR REAL... THE FINAL DRAW !

A : URUGUAY, DENMARK,BULGARIA, TUNISIA

B : FRANCE, PORTUGAL, COSTA-RICA, SAUDI ARABIA

C : ITALY, YUGOSLAVIA,PARAGUAY, WALES

D : SPAIN, SOUTH KOREA,CAMEROON, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

E : GERMANY, SOVIETUNION, JAPAN, SOUTH AFRICA

F : HUNGARY, UNITEDSTATES, ROMANIA, ECUADOR

G : CZECHOSLOVAKIA,BELGIUM, TURKEY, ALGERIA

H : ENGLAND, SWITZERLAND,PERU, NORTHERN IRELAND

I : BRAZIL, POLAND,SENEGAL, AUSTRALIA

J : ARGENTINA, MEXICO,MOROCCO, SCOTLAND

K : SWEDEN, AUSTRIA,COLOMBIA, GHANA

L : NETHERLANDS, CHILE,NIGERIA, NORWAY

The initial non-adjusted draw was kept. For Instance, Tunisia was initially seeded to Group L and was swapped with Norway who were initially seeded to Group A (due to the presence of Nigeria in group L that is, yes).
It looks good and interesting enough in FYT's opinion. Who's playing this anyway ? But of course, you are welcome to the ATWC and maybe you will enjoy some bits of it.

What will be the outcome of this All-Time World Cup ? Nobody knows.