Fifa World Cup Seedings Announced

2 min read 8 December 2005

The FIFA Organising Committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany have announced the seedings that will be used for Friday’s (Saturday Australian time) draw in Leipzig. Australia have been placed into Pot 2 alongside the five African qualifiers – Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Tunisia, plus two South American nations in Paraguay and Ecuador.

The FIFA Organising Committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany have announced the seedings that will be used for Friday-s (Saturday Australian time) draw in Leipzig. Australia have been placed into Pot 2 alongside the five African qualifiers - Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Tunisia, plus two South American nations in Paraguay and Ecuador.

Brazil, England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina, Italy and host Germany will be the eight seeded teams.

The eight groups will consist of one team drawn from each of the four groupings listed below.

The World Cup regulations stipulate that geographical criteria must be taken into account in the draw. Therefore each group will not include more than one team per confederation, with the exception of Europe, which has 14 representatives. Consequently, six of the eight groups will comprise two European teams. Serbia and Montenegro were allocated to a special pot to avoid drawing three European teams into one group. At the draw, Serbia and Montenegro will be allocated to one of the three groups that are headed by a non-European team, in other words, either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico.

The full allocation for the draw is as follows:

Pot 1 1. Germany 2. Brazil 3. England 4. Spain 5. Mexico 6. France 7. Argentina 8. Italy

Pot 2 Africa & South America & Oceania 1. Angola 2. Côte d-Ivoire 3. Ghana 4. Togo 5. Tunisia 6. Ecuador 7. Paraguay 8. Australia

Pot 3 Europe 1. Croatia 2. Czech Republic 3. Netherlands 4. Poland 5. Portugal 6. Sweden 7. Switzerland 8. Ukraine

Pot 4 Asia & North, Central America and the Caribbean 1. Iran 2. Japan 3. Korea Republic 4. Saudi Arabia 5. Costa Rica 6. USA 7. Trinidad and Tobago

Special Pot Serbia and Montenegro (lowest ranked European team)

The draw will be covered live on SBS TV from 6.15am AEDT (Check local guides).