FIFA confirms World Cup draw seeds

FIFA has announced the seeds for the 2014 World Cup finals draw after the October world rankings were released on Thursday

Hosts Brazil will be joined by Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay and Switzerland.

Uruguay’s place in the top pot of seeds is subject to winning the intercontinental playoff against Jordan, and if they fail to qualify then Holland  will move into the top pot.

Only the top pot is seeded for the December  6 draw, with the remaining pools based purely on a geographical basis to ensure a spread of nations in each group.

 There can be no more than one team from each confederation in each group, with the exception of Europe which will have two nations in four or five groups.

If Uruguay win their playoff, then the geographical draw pots will likely be similar to that of 2006. One pot may contain eight European nations, another should have the four Asian countries and four from CONCACAF (or New Zealand), with a final pot of Chile, Ecuador and the five African qualifiers.

That would leave a separate pot for the lowest-ranked UEFA side, who would be drawn against a non-European team from the seeded pot – Brazil, Argentina, Colombia or possibly Uruguay, to ensure no more than two European teams are in one group. In 2006 this fate befell Serbia & Montenegro, who were dumped in the Group of Death and lost all three games to Argentina (6-0), Ivory Coast and Netherlands – three nations who can be drawn together again in 2014.