Messages: SMFA World Cup - Italy Host First Finals!

February 10th, 2009 by SM Dev (Ste)

The first ever SMFA World Cups get underway on Thursday in Gold Championships 26, 27 & 28.

Qualification for the SMFA World Cup:

There are currently 80 national associations within each Gold Championship (GC), and they were put into five pots for seeding purposes. Each of the pots were seeded (ranked 1-5) to help aid the SMFA in drawing groups for qualifying for the SMFA World Cup (SMFA WC).

Each SMFA World Cup Qualifying (SMFA WCQ) group contained five national teams, and the groups consisted of one national association from each of the five pots. This meant that there were 16 SMFA WCQ groups. Each national team played the other four nations home and away during the course of the season (8 matches in total), and the top two nations at the end of the SMFA WCQ that have qualifed for the SMFA WC are as folllows:

Group 1:

• Senegal  & Germany (GC 26);
• Spain & Ivory Coast (GC 27);
• France & Korea Republic (GC 28).

Group 2:

• Ukraine & Portugal (GC 26);
• Bulgaria & Czech Republic (GC 27);
• Poland & Estonia (GC 28).

Group 3:

• Mexico & Venezuela (GC 26);
• FYR Macedonia & Cameroon (GC 27);
• Malta & Saudi Arabia (GC 28).

Group 4:

• Greece & Paraguay (GC 26);
• Italy & Finland (GC 27);
• Ireland & Bolivia (GC 28).

Group 5:

• Poland & Montenegro (GC 26);
• Colombia & Northern Ireland (GC 27);
• Hungary & Uruguay (GC 28).

Group 6:

• Uruguay & Korea Republic (GC 26);
• Tunisia & Belgium (GC 27);
• Portugal & Chile (GC 28).

Group 7:

• Australia & Cameroon (GC 26);
• Denmark & Costa Rica (GC 27);
• Senegal & Colombia (GC 28).

Group 8:

• Colombia & Italy (GC 26);
• Ukraine & Australia (GC 27);
• Costa Rica & Australia (GC 28).

Group 9:

• Ireland & England (GC 26);
• Greece& Paraguay (GC 27);
• Latvia & Turkey (GC 28).

Group 10:

• Israel & Slovakia (GC 26);
• Iceland & Korea Republic (GC 27);
• Egypt & Austria (GC 28).

Group 11:

• France & Bulgaria (GC 26);
• Serbia & China (GC 27);
• Algeria & Finland (GC 28).

Group 12:

• Northern Ireland & Ivory Coast (GC 26);
• Turkey & Slovakia (GC 27);
• Morocco & Lithuania (GC 28).

Group 13:

• Brazil & Trinidad & Tobago (GC 26);
• Saudi Arabia & Trinidad & Tobago (GC 27);
• Czech Republic & Bulgaria (GC 28).

Group 14:

• Austria & Bolivia (GC 26);
• Albania & Netherlands (GC 27);
• Northern Ireland & Wales (GC 28).

Group 15:

• Argentina & Finland (GC 26);
• Cyprus & Croatia (GC 27);
• China & Belgium (GC 28).

Group 16:

• Bosnia & Herzegovina & Croatia (GC 26);
• Sweden & Russia (Gc 27);
• Japan & Georgia (GC 28).

SMFA World Cup:

The SMFA WC is a 32 team tournament that is held during close season, and it will include the national teams which qualified during the SMFA WCQ (see above list). The SMFA will choose at the start of each season which country will host the SMFA WC, and therefore each season you will see the tournament hosted in a different country.

We are happy to announce that Italy will host the first ever SMFA World Cups and the eight cities and stadia that have been selected to host the SMFA WC matches are as follows:

• Milan - San Siro (85,700);
• Rome - Stadio Olimpico (82,922);
• Naples - San Paolo (78,210);
• Bari - San Nicola (58,270);
• Florence - Artemio Franchi (47,284);
• Udine - Friuli (41,625);
• Messina - Stadio San Filippo (40,200);
• Verona - Marc’Antonio Bentegodi (39,211).

All of the above cities will host group games and the city of Rome and the Stadio Olimpico will host the SMFA WC Final.

The competing nations in the SMFA WC will be split into 8 groups of 4 later today, and this will be done by the SMFA based on seedings. Each national team will play the other three nations once during the group stage (3 matches in total), and the top two nations at the end of the SMFA WC group stage will qualify for the SMFA WC knock-out stages. The knock-out stages are one off matches leading all the way to the SMFA WC Final.

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