(Adding details and quotes)
By Mike Collett
LEIPZIG, Dec 6 - Hosts Germany and champions
Brazil were named in the top eight seeded teams for the World
Cup draw on Tuesday along with England, Spain, Mexico, France,
Argentina and Italy.
FIFA have split the remaining 24 teams according to their
confederations rather than their current world rankings or past
World Cup performances.
However, there is no place at the top table for the Czech
Republic, currently second in the FIFA world rankings, or the
Netherlands, who are third, or even the United States, ranked
eighth, who edged Mexico to win the CONCACAF qualifying
competition for the first time in 71 years.
The Dutch won their tough qualifying group in which they
were unbeaten in 12 matches. They miss out along with Portugal,
ranked 10th in the world, who also came through their 12-game
qualifying campaign unbeaten.
In Friday's draw, which begins at 2030 local time (1930
GMT), the first pot will contain the top eight teams with the
second pot containing the five African finalists: Ghana, Ivory
Coast, Tunisia, Angola and Togo, plus the two lower ranked South
American teams Ecuador and Paraguay along with Australia, the
winners of the Oceania qualifying competition.
The third pot will comprise eight European teams: Croatia,
Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden,
Switzerland and Ukraine.
The fourth pot will have four Asian teams: Iran, Japan,
Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the three remaining CONCACAF
countries, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.
A special pot will contain only Serbia & Montenegro, the
lowest ranked European team, to be placed in a group including
either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico.
FIFA created the special pot so they could avoid having any
groups with more than two European teams.
Jim Brown, FIFA's Director of Competitions explained: "The
seedings were based on FIFA rankings for the last three years
and the last two World Cup finals.
"Germany will be seeded in slot A1 in the draw and Brazil in
F1, and there were economic factors involved in this decision as
those teams are guaranteed to play in larger stadiums."
One team from each pot will be drawn into the eight groups
in the first stage of the finals in Germany which run from June
9 to July 9 next summer.
GERMANY OPEN
Germany will open the World Cup in Munich on June 9 and will
then play in Dortmund on June 14 and Berlin on June 20. Brazil
will start their campaign for a sixth title in Berlin on June 13
then play in Munich on June 18 and Dortmund on June 22.
In a break with the past, FIFA have also ruled that any
player selected to play in the finals will not be allowed to
play any other competitive match after May 15, the deadline for
the announcement of the finalists' 23-man squads.
The only exception will be for those players involved in the
Champions League final which will now be held in Paris on May 17
rather than May 24. The UEFA Cup final in Eindhoven has been
brought forward from May 17 to May 10.
FIFA were unhappy with the lethargic peformances of some
leading players in the 2002 finals and have now introduced the
cut-off date to give players a three-week break before the start
of the competition.
"The 23 players on the list (for each of the 32
participating nations) will not be available for any other
competition (after this date)," FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi
said on Tuesday.
"We don't want burned out players. They will be free from
any other engagement. The Champions League final is a special
exception."
NO CHANGES
FIFA also ruled on Tuesday that if the draw produced any
match likely to pose a security threat it would not be moved
from one location to another as happened in Euro 2004 when UEFA
moved two games from smaller towns to larger ones.
FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said: "No matches will be
moved from one stadium to another, the ony possible change might
be in the kickoff time."
The eventual winner of the tournament will earn 24.50
million Swiss francs (