world cup draw

[his holiness nb]

           Winners              Runners-Up
Gp 1     Portugal             Sweden
Gp 2     Israel                 Greece
Gp 3     Poland               North of Ireland 
Gp 4     Germany            Russia
Gp 5     Turkey               Spain
Gp 6     England             Croatia
Gp 7     France               Romania
Gp 8     Italy                  Bulgaria/ROI (cant decide, depends on manager, with Venables, no qualification, with Houllier, Jol, yes)
Gp 9     Holland

[deiseach]

There's a potential USA vs Cuba match as well

Would the US be allowed play in Cuba by the American authorities?
Would the Cubans send a team to the US without putting all their families under house arrest?

[his holiness nb]

US citizens are allowed into Cuba, but they arent allowed to put money into the Cuban economy, which they would be doing via flying commercially there.

They could get past this by flying directly to an American military base in Cuba and bringing all their supplies from America.

[full back]

Full back, why is no-one going to come 2nd in Group 9?

Apologies, I thought only the top team qualified in this group & runner-up got nothing, but I see that the 2nd place can make the play off as one of the best runners up
Would go for Scotland in that case

[AZOffaly]

I assume the results against the bottom team in the first 8 groups is discarded when calculating the best 8 runners up, or else the Scots would have 2 games less to accrue points?

[full back]

I assume the results against the bottom team in the first 8 groups is discarded when calculating the best 8 runners up, or else the Scots would have 2 games less to accrue points?

Correct AZ