Football: SEEDS OF HOPE FOR ENGLAND

FIFA will not decide the exact process for the 32-team draw until a meeting on Tuesday.

But one thing is for sure - everyone will want to avoid holders and favourites Brazil when the draw is made on Friday.

But FIFA have hinted that it will not differ greatly from the draw for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, which means England are likely to avoid the South Americans in the group stage.

What is certain is that there will be a pot containing the top eight sides who will not be able to play each other in the group phase.

The top eight seeds are not simply the top eight-ranked sides in the world, but will be decided at the meeting on Tuesday with previous World Cup results also taken into account. Using the previous FIFA process, the top eight seeds for the 2006 tournament will be: Brazil, Germany, Argentina, England, Italy, France, Spain and Mexico.

A second pot is expected to contain the other nine European teams. The first eight will be randomly placed into groups with the top eight seeds, with the remaining one placed in a group where there is only one other European team.

Pot three is likely to include the four Asian qualifiers, the two remaining South American teams as well as Australia.

They will be drawn at random, although Ecuador and Paraguay will be kept away from Brazil and Argentina. Pot four would therefore contain all five African nations as well as USA, Costa Rica and Trinidad. They would all be kept apart from any other team from their respective International Association.

What this means for England is that they will definitely play one of the non-seeded European teams and any other two teams from the remaining two pots.

POT ONE: Brazil, Germany, Argentina, England, Italy, France, Spain and Mexico.

POT TWO: Croatia, Czech Republic, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.

POT THREE: Australia, Ecuador, Iran, Japan, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

POT FOUR: Angola, Costa Rica, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Trinidad, Tunisia and USA.

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