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World Cup 2010: Top Seeds Announced, France In Pot 2
Netherlands have been named among the top eight seeds for Friday's World Cup draw, while France have been dropped to Pot 2.
Dec 2, 2009 4:55:35 AM
The FIFA Organising Committee has announced the eight top seeds for the 2010 World Cup draw, which will be held in Cape Town on Friday 4 December.
The seeding was based on the October 2009 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England are therefore the seven squads that join hosts South Africa as seeded teams for the Final Draw.
Netherlands were initially expected to be placed in Pot 2, but the Dutch eventually replaced France in Pot 1. Portugal also missed out on a place among the eight top seeds.
Pot 2 will be composed of teams from AFC (Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic), CONCACAF (Honduras, Mexico, USA) and OFC (New Zealand).
Pot 3 will include teams from CAF (Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria) and CONMEBOL (Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay).
Pot 4 will have the remaining UEFA teams (Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland).
As part of the draw procedure, teams from the same confederation - excluding UEFA - cannot be drawn against each other. That is to say, South Africa cannot meet Algeria, for example, while Brazil will avoid Paraguay.
In the case of UEFA, a maximum of two European teams can be drawn in each group, one from Pot 1 and one from Pot 4.
The pots in full:
Stefan Coerts, Goal.com
Who is the Very Best? Just the coolest world music group right now. They talk about their love of football--Henrik Larsson!--in the DEC/JAN issue of Goal.com Magazine.
The seeding was based on the October 2009 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England are therefore the seven squads that join hosts South Africa as seeded teams for the Final Draw.
Netherlands were initially expected to be placed in Pot 2, but the Dutch eventually replaced France in Pot 1. Portugal also missed out on a place among the eight top seeds.
Pot 2 will be composed of teams from AFC (Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic), CONCACAF (Honduras, Mexico, USA) and OFC (New Zealand).
Pot 3 will include teams from CAF (Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria) and CONMEBOL (Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay).
Pot 4 will have the remaining UEFA teams (Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland).
As part of the draw procedure, teams from the same confederation - excluding UEFA - cannot be drawn against each other. That is to say, South Africa cannot meet Algeria, for example, while Brazil will avoid Paraguay.
In the case of UEFA, a maximum of two European teams can be drawn in each group, one from Pot 1 and one from Pot 4.
The pots in full:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 (UEFA Pot) |
 South Africa (CAF - as hosts) |  Denmark (UEFA) |
 Brazil (CONMEBOL) |  France (UEFA) |
 Spain (UEFA) |  Greece (UEFA) |
 Netherlands (UEFA) |  Portugal (UEFA) |
 Italy (UEFA) |  Serbia (UEFA) |
 Germany (UEFA) |  Slovakia (UEFA) |
 Argentina (CONMEBOL) |  Slovenia (UEFA) |
 England (UEFA) |  Switzerland (UEFA) |
| Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
 Mexico (CONCACAF) |  Paraguay (CONMEBOL) |
 USA (CONCACAF) |  Ghana (CAF) |
 South Korea (AFC) |  Cameroon (CAF) |
 Japan (AFC) |  Cote d'Ivoire (CAF) |
 Australia (AFC) |  Nigeria (CAF) |
 Honduras (CONCACAF) |  Uruguay (CONMEBOL) |
 New Zealand (OFC) |  Algeria (CAF) |
 North Korea (AFC) |  Chile (CONMEBOL) |
Stefan Coerts, Goal.com
Who is the Very Best? Just the coolest world music group right now. They talk about their love of football--Henrik Larsson!--in the DEC/JAN issue of Goal.com Magazine.
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