Editing 1990 FIFA World Cup (section)

===Seedings===
The six [[Seed (sports)|seeded]] teams for the 1990 tournament were announced on 7 December 1989, two days ahead of the draw. The [[FIFA World Cup Organisers|FIFA Organising Committee]] also decided ahead of the draw, to allocate the six seeded teams into the first position of the six groups, in the alphabetic order of their seeding rank: first seed to Group A, second seed to Group B, etc.<ref name="Seedings">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/08/sports/england-is-seeded-sixth-in-1990-world-cup-in-italy.html
|title=England Is Seeded Sixth in 1990 World Cup in Italy|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=8 December 1989|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422075417/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/08/sports/england-is-seeded-sixth-in-1990-world-cup-in-italy.html|archive-date=22 April 2022}}</ref> The seeds were decided by FIFA, primarily based on the nations' [[1986 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|ranked position in the 1986 World Cup]] (counting double), with the [[1982 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|ranked position in the 1982 World Cup]] also considered as a secondary influence (counting normal).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/79d9ab359eab12f3/original/g6sxbyxsmoqdxz3firrz-pdf.pdf|title=Fact Sheet: FIFA World Cup Seeding System 1930-2010|publisher=FIFA|date=5 August 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220322012822/https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/79d9ab359eab12f3/original/g6sxbyxsmoqdxz3firrz-pdf.pdf|archive-date=22 March 2022}}</ref>

Six of the [[1986 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|final eight in 1986]] had qualified for the 1990 tournament, the missing nations being Mexico (quarter-final in 1986) and France (third place). Italy did not reach the final eight in 1986, but despite this were still seeded first in 1990 as hosts. In total, the primary seeding criteria hereby resulted in seven countries to be potentially seeded. As the tournament structure only had place for the selection of six seeded teams, this left FIFA needing to exclude one of the six teams qualifying for a seed based on the primary sporting criteria. FIFA first decided, that all qualified teams having played the 1986 semifinals (Argentina, Germany, Belgium), should be guaranteed a seeding place behind the first seeded host nation Italy. Consequently, one of the three qualified nations who were eliminated in the 1986 quarter-finals (Brazil, England or Spain), should not be seeded based on the secondary sporting criteria - looking at their [[1982 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|1982 FIFA World Cup results]].

Owing to their performance in 1982, but also to their overall World Cup record, Brazil were seeded third, and not considered to drop out of the seedings. FIFA therefore had to choose if England or Spain should be granted the last seeding slot, and ultimately opted to seed England ahead of Spain.<ref name="Seedings"/>

Spain had only been eliminated in their 1986 quarter-final on penalties, albeit by fourth-placed Belgium, while England had been defeated in their 1986 quarter-final after 90 minutes by eventual winners Argentina. If the only criteria had been the [[1986 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|1986 ranking]], then Spain should have been seeded as #6 instead of England; a viewpoint being supported by FIFA President [[João Havelange]] as late as 29 November 1989.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=29 November 1989 |title=THE SIDELINES : World Cup Seeds Reported |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-29-sp-318-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |location=Rome, Italy|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008193539/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-29-sp-318-story.html|archive-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> If taking the [[1982 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|1982 ranking]] into consideration, England however had performed slightly better than Spain - as they had finished ahead of them in [[1982 FIFA World Cup#Group B|Group B of the second group stage]]. If only considering the results of the [[1978 FIFA World Cup|1978 event]], it could on the other hand have been counter argued, that Spain by their group stage performance and Netherlands by their silver medal accomplishment, should have been seeded rather than [[1978 FIFA World Cup#Qualification|England and Belgium who both had failed to qualify]].

Spanish officials believed the seeding was contrived to ensure England would be placed in Group F, the group to be held off the Italian mainland, in a bid to contain England's hooliganism problems.<ref name="ENGseed"/> Their coach [[Luis Suárez Miramontes|Luis Suárez]] said, "We feel we've been cheated...they wanted to seed England and to send it to Cagliari at all costs. So they invented this formula".<ref name="Seedings" /> FIFA countered that "the formula was based on the teams' respective showings during the previous two World Cups. England merited the sixth position. This is in no way a concession to English hooliganism".<ref name="Seedings" />

Meanwhile, the Netherlands also had an argument, that on grounds of recent footballing form, they should be seeded, as the winners of the [[UEFA Euro 1988|1988 European Championship]], in which both [[Spain men's national football team|Spain]] and [[England national football team|England]] had been eliminated in the group stages, while [[Belgium national football team|Belgium]] (fourth in the 1986 World Cup after beating Spain, and thus seeded in 1990) had failed to even qualify. However, this argument was countered by the fact that Netherlands had themselves failed to qualify for both the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, which was considered the most important factor in the decision not to seed them.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/30/sports/cup-seedings-revealed.html|title=Cup seedings revealed|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=30 November 1989|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117052949/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/30/sports/cup-seedings-revealed.html|archive-date=17 November 2020}}</ref>

The arguments whether or not seeding positions were justified, mainly existed ahead of the draw, and rapidly fizzled out after the draw, as
the two teams considered the most unlucky not to be seeded (Spain and Netherlands), were both drawn in groups against the two teams considered the weakest of the seeded nations (Belgium and England). After the group stage had been completed, England could be said to have justified their seeded position by winning their [[1990 FIFA World Cup#Group F|Group F]] ahead of Ireland and Netherlands; while Spain seemed to have made their own point about being worth a seeded position, by defeating Belgium to top their own [[1990 FIFA World Cup#Group E|Group E]].

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Top Seeded teams<ref name="Seedings"/><br /><small>{{nowrap|(hosts and top 6-ranked from [[1982 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|1982]] & [[1986 FIFA World Cup#FIFA retrospective ranking|1986]])}}</small>
!Pot 1<ref name="Pots">{{Cite news |title=The Times guide to the draw for the World Cup finals |page=51 |newspaper=The Times |location=London |date=9 December 1989 }}</ref><br />Africa, Asia & North America<br /><small>([[1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)|CAF]], [[1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)|AFC]] & [[1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)|CONCACAF]])</small>
!Pot 2<ref name="Pots"/><br />South America & Europe II<br /><small>([[1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)|CONMEBOL]] & [[1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)|UEFA]])</small>
!Pot 3<ref name="Pots"/><br />Best unseeded from Europe<br /><small>([[1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)|UEFA]])</small>
|-
|
{{fb|ITA|1946}} <small>(hosts, A1) (1st)</small><br />
{{fb|ARG|1861}} <small>(holders, B1) (2nd)</small><br />
{{fb|BRA|1968}} <small>(C1) (3rd)</small><br />
{{fb|FRG}} <small>(D1) (4th)</small><br />
{{fb|BEL}} <small>(E1) (5th)</small><br />
{{fb|ENG}} <small>(F1) (6th)</small>
|valign="top"|
{{fb|CMR}}<br />
{{fb|CRC}}<br />
{{fb|EGY}}<br />
{{fb|KOR|1984}}<br />
{{fb|UAE}}<br />
{{fb|USA}}
|
{{fb|COL}}<br />
{{fb|TCH}}<br />
{{fb|IRL}}<br />
{{fb|ROU}}<br />
{{fb|SWE}}<br />
{{fb|URU}}
|
{{fb|AUT}}<br />
{{fb|NED}}<br />
{{fb|SCO}}<br />
{{fb|ESP}}<br />
{{fb|URS}}<br />
{{fb|YUG}}
|}