England expected to be among draw seeds

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FIFA's World Cup organising committee will decide on the seeds and the format of the draw at a meeting in Cape Town tomorrow and whichever formula is used England should be guaranteed a spot as one of the top eight.

Using FIFA's formula for the 2006 World Cup, current world rankings and performances in the previous two finals would see Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, France and Argentina seeded in that order along with hosts South Africa.

If however FIFA's world rankings alone are used then France would miss out on being seeded with Holland taking their place.

Rankings alone have not been used in the past but FIFA relaunched the system with much fanfare a couple of years ago, boasting the new-look rankings were much more indicative of a country's current position in world football.

FIFA also announced last week that if rankings were to be used in any way to determine seeding then the October standings would be used.

Portugal, England's nemesis at the last two major tournaments, are almost certainly unseeded so loom as possible group opponents.

Each of the top seeds will be grouped with another European nation, and have a big chance of drawing one of five African countries other than the hosts.

Fabio Capello will be glad that his side will avoid the real big hitters such as Spain and Brazil but will be acutely aware that England could still end up in a 'Group of Death'.

A worst-case scenario would see England drawn in a group with Portugal, USA - beaten finalists in the Confederations Cup - and an Ivory Coast side boasting Didier Drogba.

The best scenario would see England take on Slovenia, Algeria and North Korea.

Possible pots for Friday's draw: eight groups of four countries would be drawn, each group containing one country from each pot.

Pot 1 (seeds)
South Africa, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, France, Argentina.

Pot 2 (Europe)
Holland, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.

Pot 3 (Africa and South America)
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay.

Pot 4 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America)
Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.