No surprises really, FIFA today decided that Brazil, England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina, Italy and host Germany will be the eight seeded teams heading the groups for the final draw of the 2006 World Cup Finals in Leipzig on Friday, 9th December.

It was also decided that the other pots would be based on geographical locations rather than current world ranking or previous World Cup performances.

Pool 2:
Australia, the five African finalists: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Angola and Togo, plus the two lower ranked South American teams Ecuador and Paraguay.

Pool 3:
Eight European teams: Croatia, Czech Republic, Holland, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Pool 4:
Four Asian teams: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the three remaining teams from CONCACAF: Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.

To avoid having any group with more than two European teams, a special pot will contain only Serbia & Montenegro, the lowest ranked European team, who will be placed in a group headed by either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico.