No Cristiano Ronaldo at the World Cup in South Africa next year?

Never mind, FIFA will help.

Small nations are up in arms with the FIFA decision to seed teams for the playoffs last week. Giovanni Trapattoni, manager of the Republic of Ireland said it would be the “death of football” while his goalkeeper Shay Given calling it “totally unfair on the smaller nations.”

FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced that the draw would see four seeded and four non-seeded countries.

This would help big football countries like France, Germany, Russia, Croatia and Portugal if they finish runners-up. Small countries like the Republic of Ireland will probably not be seeded.

A World Cup without the likes of Ronaldo and Thierry Henry of France would have implications on television audience, impacting commercial relationships.

“Four or five years ago, the big clubs wanted a European League but it was dangerous and they gave up on the idea,” said Trapattoni. “They thought it would be the death of football. Now, we have a similar situation and it has to change in the future because every country has the right to be the same. This [World Cup] draw must be open. We must give the opportunity to everyone. I thought it was going to be an open draw and in the future, they have to think about the rankings and change the system. But business is business. The big teams command UEFA in the rankings table. At the moment, it is difficult to change but they must.”

“The rules should be laid out clearly before any ball is kicked and then there’s no dark cloud or whatever,” said Given. “It’s ridiculous how they can make a decision now when some of the big-name nations are maybe struggling to qualify. It’s totally unfair on the smaller nations. It’s pretty disgusting, to be honest. To change it at this stage is beyond belief.”

If FIFA can think of a way to get Argentina into the World Cup if Maradona messes it up, that would be something to talk about.