What's with the Central African Republic? Two months ago they were on 0 points in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings. A draw with Morocco shot them up 30 places to 172nd in the world, and now they look to be shooting higher when the new ranks come out on Wednesday. Just as the Euro 2012 qualifiers were taking place, so were the Africa Cup of Nations 2012 qualifiers. Algeria, who qualified for South Africa 2010, were playing CAR and lost!
In total, CAR (or, to use FIFA's lettering, CTA) got 1051.35 points from that match. Don't forget that FIFA take an average over the matches for the whole year to calculate points, so that's not how many points they will go up in the table, but since they've only played two games over the last year, the total of this plus their draw against Morocco will be divided by five. In other words, that's 260.78 points for 2010.
This win puts CAR at the top of their group for the Africa Cup of Nations 2012 qualifiers.
And that ends the interesting non-F1, non-Euro 2012 world news.
16/10/2010
13/10/2010
Euro 2012 Qualification: 13/10/2010 Results
The best UK team this weekend was Northern Ireland, with two draws, although they should have done better against the Faroe Islands. The worst team was Wales, who had two losses - to Montenegro and Switzerland. Scotland also had two losses, but they did too well against Spain to be the worst UK team this weekend. England barely scrape ahead of Scotland, as they should have done better against Montenegro.
Most unexpected result: Azerbaijan 1 – 0 Turkey. Surprising because Azerbaijan are 102nd in the world to Turkey's 21st. This is Azerbaijan's first win of Euro 2012 qualifying after losses against Germany and Austria. Turkey are suffering their second loss this weekend after Germany on Friday, but beat Begium and Kazakhstan previously.
Most predictable result: Armenia 4 – 0 Andorra. I'd have gone for the San Marino game, but they didn't get quite as bad a score as usual, since they were playing against Moldova. Actually, since the gap is smaller for Armenia and Andorra, San Marino are doing better than their fellow poor-scorers.
Most embarrassing result: Estonia 0 – 1 Slovenia. The only goal in this game was an Estonian own goal. Funnily enough, Serbia scored an own goal against Estonia on Friday, which got them the most embarrassing result for that round of qualification matches.
Most promising result: France 2 – 0 Luxembourg. France are winning again. Okay, Luxembourg are easy, but they also beat Romania. Perhaps they can start rising in the ranks again.
Most unusual result: Italy – Serbia. They're taking two of the 'awards tonight'. An abandonment counts as an unusual result in anyone's book. For completed games. This goes to Belgium 4 – 4 Austria, who are only one place apart in the FIFA rankings. This pair of Western European countries kept their fans excited to the end, with first one then the other team getting ahead. Two goals were scored in extra time – one by each team!
Cleanest game: Netherlands 4 – 1 Sweden. It was a toss-up between three games, but the Netherlands got it because of their improved form since the World Cup final.
Dirtiest game: Italy - Serbia. And it was the fans, not the players, who made this game dirty. Serbian fans, to be precise. They had already clashed with Italian police, and continued their poor behaviour at the stadium. As the players were emerging onto the pitch, some Serbian hooligans set off fireworks and threw flares onto the pitch. The players had to return to their dressing rooms as Italian riot cops confronted the fans. The match eventually started 40 minutes late, after a nasty booing of the Serbian national anthem by the Italian fans. After a mere seven minutes it was abandoned by the Scottish referee. Terrible! Why do British referees always get the bad games?
Most unexpected result: Azerbaijan 1 – 0 Turkey. Surprising because Azerbaijan are 102nd in the world to Turkey's 21st. This is Azerbaijan's first win of Euro 2012 qualifying after losses against Germany and Austria. Turkey are suffering their second loss this weekend after Germany on Friday, but beat Begium and Kazakhstan previously.
Most predictable result: Armenia 4 – 0 Andorra. I'd have gone for the San Marino game, but they didn't get quite as bad a score as usual, since they were playing against Moldova. Actually, since the gap is smaller for Armenia and Andorra, San Marino are doing better than their fellow poor-scorers.
Most embarrassing result: Estonia 0 – 1 Slovenia. The only goal in this game was an Estonian own goal. Funnily enough, Serbia scored an own goal against Estonia on Friday, which got them the most embarrassing result for that round of qualification matches.
Most promising result: France 2 – 0 Luxembourg. France are winning again. Okay, Luxembourg are easy, but they also beat Romania. Perhaps they can start rising in the ranks again.
Most unusual result: Italy – Serbia. They're taking two of the 'awards tonight'. An abandonment counts as an unusual result in anyone's book. For completed games. This goes to Belgium 4 – 4 Austria, who are only one place apart in the FIFA rankings. This pair of Western European countries kept their fans excited to the end, with first one then the other team getting ahead. Two goals were scored in extra time – one by each team!
Cleanest game: Netherlands 4 – 1 Sweden. It was a toss-up between three games, but the Netherlands got it because of their improved form since the World Cup final.
Dirtiest game: Italy - Serbia. And it was the fans, not the players, who made this game dirty. Serbian fans, to be precise. They had already clashed with Italian police, and continued their poor behaviour at the stadium. As the players were emerging onto the pitch, some Serbian hooligans set off fireworks and threw flares onto the pitch. The players had to return to their dressing rooms as Italian riot cops confronted the fans. The match eventually started 40 minutes late, after a nasty booing of the Serbian national anthem by the Italian fans. After a mere seven minutes it was abandoned by the Scottish referee. Terrible! Why do British referees always get the bad games?
Euro 2012 Qualification: Italy vs Serbia
There are worse fans than the English
Italy vs Serbia was a fiasco, with Serbian fans causing havoc by throwing flares on the pitch and lighting fireworks. The Scottish referee Chris Thomson had to abandon the match after just six minutes, and that was after a 40 minute delay before kickoff.
Here's how the FIFA rules go about abandoning matches:
Under the section about 'authority of the referee' and his 'powers and duties':
“The referee: … stops, suspends or abandons the match because of outside interference of any kind”
FIFA rules about abandoned matches: “An abandoned match is replayed unless the competition rules provide otherwise.”
UEFA rules about abandoned matches in the Euro Cup: “Si un match est arrêté avant la fin de la durée réglementaire de la rencontre ou lors d’une éventuelle prolongation en raison de l'état du terrain ou pour d’autres raisons, il doit être rejoué intégralement le lendemain ou à une autre date convenue par l’association organisatrice et l’association visiteuse, sous réserve de l’approbation de l’Administration de l’UEFA. Un accord correspondant doit intervenir dans les deux heures qui suivent la décision de l’arbitre d’annuler le match. En cas de désaccord, l’Administration de l’UEFA fixe la date et l’heure du coup d’envoi du match. Sa décision est définitive.”
As best I can translate it in my poor French (and with Google's help): “If a match is stopped before the end of normal time or any extra time during the meeting due to ground conditions or for any other reason, it must be replayed in full the next day or on another convenient date for the organising [home team] association and the visiting [away team] association, subject to approval by the UEFA administration. An agreement must occur within the two hours that follow the arbiter's [in this case, the referee's] decision to cancel the match. In case of disagreement, the UEFA administration will fix the date and time of the match's kickoff. Their decision is final.”
From the official UEFA website: “UEFA now awaits the receipt of the official UEFA delegate's match report before deciding whether to open a disciplinary case.”
The match could be reorganised, or Italy could simply be awarded a 3-0 win by UEFA.
Italy vs Serbia was a fiasco, with Serbian fans causing havoc by throwing flares on the pitch and lighting fireworks. The Scottish referee Chris Thomson had to abandon the match after just six minutes, and that was after a 40 minute delay before kickoff.
Here's how the FIFA rules go about abandoning matches:
Under the section about 'authority of the referee' and his 'powers and duties':
“The referee: … stops, suspends or abandons the match because of outside interference of any kind”
FIFA rules about abandoned matches: “An abandoned match is replayed unless the competition rules provide otherwise.”
UEFA rules about abandoned matches in the Euro Cup: “Si un match est arrêté avant la fin de la durée réglementaire de la rencontre ou lors d’une éventuelle prolongation en raison de l'état du terrain ou pour d’autres raisons, il doit être rejoué intégralement le lendemain ou à une autre date convenue par l’association organisatrice et l’association visiteuse, sous réserve de l’approbation de l’Administration de l’UEFA. Un accord correspondant doit intervenir dans les deux heures qui suivent la décision de l’arbitre d’annuler le match. En cas de désaccord, l’Administration de l’UEFA fixe la date et l’heure du coup d’envoi du match. Sa décision est définitive.”
As best I can translate it in my poor French (and with Google's help): “If a match is stopped before the end of normal time or any extra time during the meeting due to ground conditions or for any other reason, it must be replayed in full the next day or on another convenient date for the organising [home team] association and the visiting [away team] association, subject to approval by the UEFA administration. An agreement must occur within the two hours that follow the arbiter's [in this case, the referee's] decision to cancel the match. In case of disagreement, the UEFA administration will fix the date and time of the match's kickoff. Their decision is final.”
From the official UEFA website: “UEFA now awaits the receipt of the official UEFA delegate's match report before deciding whether to open a disciplinary case.”
The match could be reorganised, or Italy could simply be awarded a 3-0 win by UEFA.
10/10/2010
Formula 1 Race Sixteen: Race
Post number 100!
Pre Race: Since qualifying was delayed I made no post. However, to summarize: Red Bull one-two. Massa didn't even make it into qualifying 3. However, Kubica went third after Hamilton was demoted five grid places to eighth. On the warm-up lap, Di Grassi's Virgin failed and he didn't even make it to the start.
Start: Four cars went out before the first corner: Petrov crashed into Hulkenberg, and Massa hit Liuzzi. Petrov's incident means he has a five-place grid penalty on the next race, but Massa's had no further action taken. The safety car was immediately sent out, and then it was worse luck for Renault as they lost Kubica when his right rear tyre came off.
Red Bull and Alonso: This is Red Bull's seventh one-two, and Vettel's eighth pole position. He maintained it throughout the race, and although they did not get as far ahead from the field as they used to do they completed the race as they had started, with Webber setting the fastest lap right at the end. He now has 220 points, with Vettel second on 206 and equal with Alonso. Alonso went third after Kubica stopped, and stayed there.
MacLaren: They qualified better than expected, especially Lewis Hamilton with his lack of practice time over the weekend (practice three was a washout). Button started fifth on different tyres to Hamilton. After Kubica went out he went into fourth, and was first for a time after the others did their pit stops. After his stop, Button went fifth, and he would have stayed there if Hamilton hadn't lost third gear. This really affected his ability to accelerate, so he allowed Button to overtake him and it finished Button fourth, Hamilton fifth. In the championship, Hamilton has 192 points and Button has 189. It would take a lot of luck for them to win this now.
Kobayashi: Or, as he's been dubbed, 'Kobaybashi'. He raced very aggressively in front of a home crowd, overtaking four times on the hairpin – three of those on the inside. His overtakes were Alguersuari twice (after pitting); Sutil, which would have been twice if the Force India hadn't had problems; Barrichello; and his teammate Nick Heidfeld who outqualified him. Kobayashi finished an impressive seventh (Heidfeld was eighth).
Mercedes: Rosberg was able to spend most of the race holding up his older teammate Schumacher. However, a car failure right at the end of the race caused him to crash out, and Schumacher finished sixth. It was a good performance from both drivers, and especially from Schumacher compared to previous races.
The new teams: Apart from Di Grassi there were no retirements. Other drivers crashing out got Lotus their desperately-desired twelfth place from Kovalainen, almost certainly guaranteeing them tenth place in the driver's championship – worth a lot of money. There was also some good competition between Yamamoto and Glock, although in the end the Virgin got ahead.
Tuesday: Euro 2012 continues with more qualification matches.
Pre Race: Since qualifying was delayed I made no post. However, to summarize: Red Bull one-two. Massa didn't even make it into qualifying 3. However, Kubica went third after Hamilton was demoted five grid places to eighth. On the warm-up lap, Di Grassi's Virgin failed and he didn't even make it to the start.
Start: Four cars went out before the first corner: Petrov crashed into Hulkenberg, and Massa hit Liuzzi. Petrov's incident means he has a five-place grid penalty on the next race, but Massa's had no further action taken. The safety car was immediately sent out, and then it was worse luck for Renault as they lost Kubica when his right rear tyre came off.
Red Bull and Alonso: This is Red Bull's seventh one-two, and Vettel's eighth pole position. He maintained it throughout the race, and although they did not get as far ahead from the field as they used to do they completed the race as they had started, with Webber setting the fastest lap right at the end. He now has 220 points, with Vettel second on 206 and equal with Alonso. Alonso went third after Kubica stopped, and stayed there.
MacLaren: They qualified better than expected, especially Lewis Hamilton with his lack of practice time over the weekend (practice three was a washout). Button started fifth on different tyres to Hamilton. After Kubica went out he went into fourth, and was first for a time after the others did their pit stops. After his stop, Button went fifth, and he would have stayed there if Hamilton hadn't lost third gear. This really affected his ability to accelerate, so he allowed Button to overtake him and it finished Button fourth, Hamilton fifth. In the championship, Hamilton has 192 points and Button has 189. It would take a lot of luck for them to win this now.
Kobayashi: Or, as he's been dubbed, 'Kobaybashi'. He raced very aggressively in front of a home crowd, overtaking four times on the hairpin – three of those on the inside. His overtakes were Alguersuari twice (after pitting); Sutil, which would have been twice if the Force India hadn't had problems; Barrichello; and his teammate Nick Heidfeld who outqualified him. Kobayashi finished an impressive seventh (Heidfeld was eighth).
Mercedes: Rosberg was able to spend most of the race holding up his older teammate Schumacher. However, a car failure right at the end of the race caused him to crash out, and Schumacher finished sixth. It was a good performance from both drivers, and especially from Schumacher compared to previous races.
The new teams: Apart from Di Grassi there were no retirements. Other drivers crashing out got Lotus their desperately-desired twelfth place from Kovalainen, almost certainly guaranteeing them tenth place in the driver's championship – worth a lot of money. There was also some good competition between Yamamoto and Glock, although in the end the Virgin got ahead.
Tuesday: Euro 2012 continues with more qualification matches.
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