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France unseeded for World Cup

The stage where 32 nation's World Cup destiny will be decided on Friday.
The stage where 32 nation's World Cup destiny will be decided on Friday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • FIFA announce seedings for Friday's 2010 World Cup draw
  • Hosts South Africa are in Pot One with current holders Italy
  • France miss out on the seedings, based on October world rankings
RELATED TOPICS
  • Soccer
  • World Cup Soccer
  • FIFA
  • South Africa

(CNN) -- FIFA have announced the seedings for Friday's 2010 World Cup finals draw in a statement on their official web site.

Hosts South Africa take their place in Pot One with the seven top placed sides in the world rankings as of October, these being Brazil, Spain, Holland, current holders Italy, Germany, Argentina and England.

A new formula to decide the seedings has been implemented for the first time which sees teams selected on rankings places alone, rather than basing the decisions on rankings and previous tournament performances.

Under the previous formula France, who qualified in controversial fashion with a playoff victory over the Republic of Ireland, would have been seeded instead of Holland.

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Had November's rankings been used France could have been seeded instead of England, FIFA's general secretary Jerome Valcke told the British Press Association this would have been unfair.

"We made the decision last month that the October rankings would be used because they were fairer," said Valcke.

"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."

Portugal, semi-finalists in 2006, join France and the other European qualifiers in Pot Four.

As always geographical criteria is taken into consideration with the draw, meaning each group will contain a maximum of two European teams but no two teams from the remaining confederations can be drawn together.

Pots for Friday's World Cup draw:

Pot One (Seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England.

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

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

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.