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FIFA and the Drawing of Lots: A Brief History (JEFF Z. KLEIN, 6/19/10, NY Times)

If England and the United States tie their respective games next Wednesday, and the English score two more goals in their game than the Americans do in theirs, both teams will be dead even in the Group C table. According to FIFA regulations, the two will have to draw lots to see who advances and who goes home.

Has that ever happened in a major international tournament?

Yes. In 1954 in Rome, a 14-year-old boy named Luigi Franco Gemma drew lots — a ball, actually — to determine whether Turkey or Spain would go to the World Cup.

The US has a lot of cleaning up to do to get soccer to the point where it is decided by the play of the game.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 19, 2010 8:10 AM