England lucky in the build up to the draw, long may it continue!

As an England fan I am absolutely thrilled that we have been seeded for the World Cup draw tomorrow. England are one of the eight seeded teams despite the hosts South Africa being seeded and England being ranked ninth in the FIFA rankings.

Struggled

Both Portugal and France, who struggled to qualify via the play-offs, are ranked above England but are not seeded.

The other six seeded teams are Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Holland and Italy.

Let’s look at each of the seeded teams. South Africa are seeded due to the fact they are hosting the tournament. Fair enough.

Current

Spain are the current European champions, Brazil have won the world cup more than anyone else, Argentina have qualified for the last nine tournaments, won it twice in that time and won the last two Olympic tournaments.

Germany have qualified for the last fifteen tournaments, won it three times and made the final on four other occasions. They finished third last time out. Holland have made the last sixteen at least in four of the last five tournaments and have made at least the quarter-finals in the last six European championships, winning it once, and Italy have won it four times and are the current holders.

The reason for England to be seeded is…no, I don’t understand it either!

Excellent

Presumably FIFA have taken account of England’s excellent qualifying campaign where they only lost one game. Having said that, France and Portugal both only lost one game as well.

Anyway, let’s not go on about whether England should have been seeded or not, let’s just celebrate the fact that they have! Of course, it does mean that England could have France or Portugal in their group, so it isn’t all good news.

Draw

The way the draw will be conducted is as follows;

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

Each seeded nation will face one team in pot two – a side from Asia, north or central America, or Oceania – one from pot three, which has five African and three South American sides, and one from the exclusively European pot 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). 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.

Tough

That does all mean that England could have Portugal, the Ivory Coast and the United States in their group, which would be tough to say the least, but equally they could face Slovenia, Algeria and New Zealand. No world cup group is easy, but if the seeded team failed to qualify from such a group they would need shooting!

I can’t wait. Come on England!

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, 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