World Cup seeds announced
FIFA has confirmed the eight seeded nations that will be placed in pot one ahead of the 2010 World Cup draw on Friday in South Africa.
The majority of the eight seeds were expected with South Africa as hosts along with leading nations Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Argentina. However, the big debate was whether England or France would receive the final seeded spot. It seems as if FIFA has looked favourably towards England’s impressive qualification campaign where as France scraped through to the tournament with a disputed win over the Republic of Ireland.
The three remaining pots have been drawn on regional boundaries. Pot two contains the eight qualified nations from Asia, Oceania and North/Central America. Pot three contains the five qualified African nations (excluding South Africa) and the three unseeded South American nations. Pot four includes the remaining European nations including dangerous floaters France and Portugal.
As usual, the hosts will be placed in the first group meaning that they will stage the opening match of the tournament. The remaining seeds will take their place at the top of the other seven groups.
FIFA also said in a statement: “Geographical criteria will 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.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.”
Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England
Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, 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
Great coverage of the seeding process, thanks Lee!
Nice wrap up well written highly informative. I can’t wait for the draw this weekend hope aussies get one of our rivals.