England seeded for draw

FIFA has confirmed that England are among the top eight seeds for next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa.

The host nation, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany and Argentina make up the other top-ranked sides.

The remaining 24 teams will join the leading sides in Friday's draw which will determine who goes into the eight groups.

England are currently only ninth in the FIFA world rankings, but their impressive qualification campaign has helped them achieve their top-eight seeding.

Portugal, ranked fifth, and France who are seventh, find themselves in the second group of eight teams after needing play-offs to reach South Africa.

The eight seeds will all be in pot one, with the remaining three pots drawn on regional boundaries.

Pot two includes teams from Asia (Australia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea), North, Central America and the Caribbean (Honduras, Mexico and the USA) and Oceania (New Zealand).

Pot three comprises teams from Africa (Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria) and South America (Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay).

Finally, pot four will have the remaining European teams (Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland).

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