France, World Cup winner in 1998 and finalist in 2006, missed out on a place in the eight top seeds for Friday's draw, announced by FIFA Wednesday. FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told a news conference the decision had been based on the world rankings and had no connection with the controversy over France's infamous “handball” goal against Ireland. The top seeds are host South Africa, holders Italy, Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Netherlands and Spain. France is left as the most dangerous floating team which could be drawn in the same group as any one of the top eight seeds. The draw for the Finals, being staged in South Africa from June 11 to July 11, will be made in a 90-minute television spectacular starting at 1700 GMT Friday. The 32 teams will be drawn into four groups of eight. Apart from the seeds, teams will be placed in pots which will largely avoid teams from the same continent meeting each other. Pot 1 will comprise the eight top seeds with South Africa already sure to play in Group A and in the opening match at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium on June 11. The second pot will comprise eight teams from Asia, North and Central America and Oceania – Australia, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, North Korea, South Korea and United States. The third pot will be the five other African countries and three remaining South American nations – Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Paraguay and Uruguay. The final pot is made up of the eight remaining teams from Europe – Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. Valcke said there had been an agreement within the organizing committee to base the seedings on the FIFA world rankings for October. He said this had been done with the agreement of UEFA president Michel Platini of France who was very keen, for the sake of fairness, for it to be done when European teams had all played the same number of qualifying games. Valcke said this agreement pre-dated the infamous play-off in Paris when France scored an equalizer against Ireland after Thierry Henry had blatantly handled before setting up the William Gallas goal which put France into the finals. There had been some media speculation that France might be “punished” by FIFA after widespread protests at the result from Ireland and beyond. The decision on how the seedings and pot grouping work means that the seeded teams would most fear being drawn into a group which included the United States from pot two, Ivory Coast from pot three and France from pot four. The rankings were decided on the October standings and not the latest one from November to eliminate the advantage some teams might have had from additional games in the European playoffs. In October, France was ninth, two places below England, the lowest seeded team. FIFA writes to Maradona to stay away from draw FIFA has written to the Argentine football federation to make sure coach Diego Maradona stays away from Friday's World Cup draw. FIFA has said Maradona's two-month suspension for an expletive-filled rant at a news conference extends beyond matches and also includes such activities as the draw.
