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No surprises as FIFA name top World Cup seeds
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-07 09:16

LEIPZIG, Dec 6 (Reuters) - 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.
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