France left unseeded

Portugal and France have been left unseeded for Friday's World Cup draw in Cape Town, while Australia has been placed in pot two alongside the other three Asian qualifiers as well as New Zealand, the USA, Mexico and Honduras.

France and Portugal have suffered for the fact they needed to go through the playoffs to qualify and find themselves in pot four with the other six unseeded UEFA teams. It means that unless they draw South Africa in their group, they will have to face one of the seven seeded teams in the group stage.

Those teams include Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, England, Italy, Germany and Argentina.

The wash-up for Australia is that it could possibly draw both a seeded team and one of France, who were beaten finalists four years ago, or Portugal, a semi-finalist in Germany 2006.

It also means that Australia could also draw an African team, which are expected to perform well in what will be the first World Cup held on African soil.

Pot three contains the five African qualifiers, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria and Cameroon as well as the three unseeded qualifers from CONMEBOL, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Australia's best case scenario would be to draw host South Africa, a European minnow like Slovenia, Slovakia or Greece, and perhaps Algeria or one of Chile, Uruguay or Paraguay.

A worst case scenario could see them in a group containing Brazil, Italy or Germany, then France or Portugal, followed by one of the stronger African nations.

France was involved in a hugely-controversial play-off win over the Republic of Ireland and there has been some suspicion that Les Bleus are being punished for Thierry Henry's infamous handball.

FIFA insist however that had no bearing on their decision - but they have abandoned their previous practice and used rankings alone rather than also taking into account performances at previous finals.

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke insisted there was no agenda against France.

Valcke said: "In the past the seedings have been determined by a mixture of world rankings and performances in past World Cups but this time the feeling was the October rankings most closely represented the best teams in the tournament."

Using previous formulas, France would have been seeded and not Holland. Had the November rankings been used then England would have missed out and France been seeded.

Valcke added: "We made the decision last month that the October rankings would be used because they were fairer - countries who had been involved in the play-offs would have had an unfair advantages because they would have played more games and that affects their rankings."

"This is not a case of wanting Holland or any other country to be seeded instead of France, just that the feeling was the October seedings represented the best teams."

Pot One: Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, England, Italy, Germany, Argentina, South Africa
Pot Two: Australia, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.
Pot Three: Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay.
Pot Four: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland