Subject: FIFA announces World Cup Seeds using ONLY FIFA Rankings

England seeded for 2010 World Cup

Fifa has confirmed England will be one of eight seeded teams when the World Cup draw takes place on Friday.

They will thus avoid favourites Spain and Brazil, who are two of the other seeded sides, in the group stage.

Argentina, Germany, Netherlands, holders Italy and hosts South Africa make up the remaining seeded nations.

The 32 qualifiers will be assembled into eight groups on Friday in Cape Town when the draw is made for next summer's tournament from 1745 GMT.

England are ranked only ninth in the Fifa world rankings, but their impressive qualification campaign has been rewarded.

Portugal, currently ranked fifth, and France (seventh) had problems making the big tournament in South Africa and have thus missed out on the seedings - which reflect October's positions in the official table rather than the November ones.

France, who controversially qualified in a play-off against Ireland with a Thierry Henry handball, won the tournament in 1998 and were beaten finalists last time in Germany.

Portugal eliminated England in their last two major tournaments, both times through penalty shoot-outs.

This is the second World

Cup in a row England are seeded, and is the result of getting quarter-finals in 02 and 06 plus Capello's impact as manager since missing out on the Euros

BBC Radio 5 live's sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar said: "Portugal and France are the dangerous floaters in Friday's draw."

The eight seeds will all be in pot one, with the remaining three pots drawn on regional boundaries.

Each will face one team in pot three - a team from Asia, north or central America, or Oceania - one team from pot three - which has five African and three South American sides - and one from the exclusively European pot four.

A worst case scenario on Friday would arguably see Fabio Capello's side take on France, Ivory Coast and the USA, while a far easier proposition on paper would have England facing Slovenia, Algeria and New Zealand.

Fifa said in a statement: "Hosts South Africa will be automatically positioned as A1, the other seeded teams will be drawn into the other groups B-H, but will always be in position "1" of their group.

"Groups will be drawn from A to H and the positions in the group will be drawn for pots two to four.

"Geographical criteria will also be respected, meaning that no two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group).

The feeling was the October rankings most closely represented the best teams in the tournament

Jerome Valcke, FIFA general secretary

"For example, South Africa cannot play the African teams from pot three and Argentina and Brazil cannot be drawn against the three remaining South American teams."

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said there was no agenda against France as a result of the play-off controversy from their game with the Republic of Ireland.

Valcke said: "In the past the seedings have been determined by a mixture of world rankings and performances in past World Cups but this time the feeling was the October rankings most closely represented the best teams in the tournament."

Had the November rankings been used then England would have missed out and France been seeded.

Valcke added: "We made the decision last month that the October rankings would be used because they were fairer - countries who had been involved in the play-offs would have had an unfair advantages because they would have played more games and that affects their rankings.

"This is not a case of wanting Holland to be seeded instead of France, just that the feeling was the October seedings represented the best teams."

The draw for the finals, being staged from June 11 to July 11, will be made in a 90-minute television spectacular shown in the UK on BBC Two.

Pots for Friday's draw: eight groups of four countries to be drawn, each group containing one country from each pot.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia

-Spain
-Australia
- Algeria
-Portugal

France should authomatically be placed into South Africa's group

But there is nothing like authomatic placement and South Africa can actualy get Slovakia instead.

What a Group of Life that will be

South Africa
New Zealand/North Korea
Algeria
Slovakia

vs

Spain
Mexico
Ivory Coast
Serbia/Portugal

So basically Pot 1, 2 and 4 are entirely random and Pot 3 means

South Africa get placed with Paraguay/Chile/Uruguay
Brazil and Argentina get placed with Ivory Coast/Ghana/Cameroon/Nigeria/Algeria

So 2 South American teams will be placed against Europeans and 3 African teams.

Worst Draw

Brazil
Mexico
Ivory Coast
France

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said there was no agenda against France as a result of the play-off controversy from their game with the Republic of Ireland.

Yea, yea yea, they don't even beleive it. Outrageous, big liars.

Best draw for us:

-South Africa
-Switzerland
-Uruguay
-Honduras

We all know CONCACAF is the worst region in the world :P

Yea, yea yea, they don't even beleive it. Outrageous, big liars.

not really. Do you see a worse team than them in Pot A? I don't. Except for hosts, SA. Especially as France played a playoff to the to WC. Completely normal...

Yeah France only managed to get to the finals of the last WC. But Netherlands, that is a team that has won so many things in their last 4 years. Oh wait, no they havent. Then in the last 10 years. Oooooh wait. Maybe 20? dang!.

a team that has won so many things

Let's not start talking about why England is seeded ;)

Netherlands has won all of the qualification matches. France won't be there without Henry's hand. It's normal.

It's FIFA's usual way of acting: first, it waits for the qulifiers to end. Then, it checks which teams it wants in pot 1. Then, it makes whatever method delivers those teams in pot 1 and announce a "new, fair, objective seeding system".
It's pathetic.
It's sooo easy to be transparent by announcing a seeding method in advance to qualifiers (not to mention keeping the same system from WC to WC). But FIFA is sooo mafia. Not even the Sokker staff could be more corrupt :P
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you are about to be silenced..... :P

Chik chik

*I already reloaded my shotgun*

check your facts. Netherlands has lost hardly te last years. And the ones they lost were almost everytime the finalists of the tournament.
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Like in WC 2006, when Portugal won the tournament
Or in WC 2002, when the champion was... wait, who was in your qualifier groups again?
At least back in 1998 and 1994 you lost to Brasil, who went to the final. In fact, in 1994 it is, at last, true: you lost to the champion. So, 16 years ago your statemt did apply :P
Of course, Castor facts still right, you haven't won a single tournament in all those years. But that Euro '88 surely deserves a top seeding :P

Oh, wait, that's it, you were speaking about continental tournaments, not world cups. Not as important, but OK, then it's ture: you mostly lost to the champions, like Russia 2008, Portugal 2004, Italia 2000, France 1996... Oh, yes, Denmark 1992!

OK, so you lost to the winner of the tournament in Euro 1992, WC 1994, and you even won Euro 1988. Besides, you lost to Portugal in Euro 2004 and WC 2006: Portugal didn't win a thing, of course, but Senhor_Castor loves Portugal, so that counts too :P

Not that Argentina did any better or anything, of course It's just the way it is.
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