World Cup draw - fixed?

[puternut]

Whilst watching the draw on TV last night I noticed that quite often a voice could be heard ststing which country had been picked a half a second before the presenters apparently showed the result of the paper inside the ball.

Did anyone else notice?

Whilst not truely 'a fix' it does knock the credibiblity of the draw.

[Jumbuck]

That audio was probably another BBC feed (could be the studio, the control room) and there is very likely to be a different timelag from the official coverage (sound and pictures).

Not everything has to be a conspiracy.

[nealcollins]

Great question. It was fixed. England knew their first game would be in Rustenburg and Argentina booked in to their training ground on Thursday knowing Group B would keep them at altitude throughout. I think they use warmed balls to get it right, Maradona said as much years ago. Please see my blogs over the last couple of days on www.nealcollins.co.uk/blog. Feel free to comment. I mentioned it on Sky News this morning, but no reaction, predictably. I'm not saying it's the worst thing in the world to make sure the big nations are in the "right" places but it's wrong to pretend it's a random draw.

[ELVIS68]

If Sepp Blatter is involved of course it is fixed

[craft1948]

so I had to miss Escape To The Country and Eggheads for a bloody fixed draw.....doh

[nealcollins]

I've gone on youtube with this (search for World Cup draw fixed, it should come up), but getting precious little response from the major media in Britain or abroad. Guess it'll just stay hushed up. It's been said above: Money is everything in sport now. If it makes economic sense, they'll do it. England and Argentina were prepared to invest substantial sums in training camps and didn't want any last minute changes of plan so presto! It's done. Thing is if they can fix a draw in front of billions, what else are they capable of? Or am I becoming a classic conspiracy theorist in my old age?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26B6civ-8qk

Details of the great World Cup 2010 draw: Fixed? I'm afraid so

[glasman]

It's not just the World Cup draw that stinks.In October, when it looked very likely that both Portugal and France would be in the play-offs, they changed the rules and brought in a seeding system to lessen the chances of these two teams not going to South Africa. Also, the referee - considered a nobody - in the Ireland - France match will now be officiating at the World Cup. Did somebody mention that ugly word CONSPIRACY?

[TTG]

Yes, so all the top teams get further and their countries tv companies pay more fees.

The process is called "seedings".