South Africa will likely need a little bit of luck in Friday's World Cup draw to have a chance of advancing from the group stage at next year's tournament – the first to be played on African soil. The host is one of the eight seeded teams but could still be faced with a group possibly including France, the United States and Cameroon in Group A. It could also get an easier schedule of facing New Zealand, Uruguay and Slovenia. “The draw can produce anything,” World Cup chief executive Danny Jordaan told The Associated Press. “We hope on the luck of the draw. It is important for us as the host nations that our team must progress in the second round and we will keep our fingers crossed.” FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke and South African Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron will choose the balls from the four pots to create the eight groups. With the exception of European teams, countries from the same geographical confederation cannot be drawn into the same group. France is the highest-ranked team to miss out on being seeded, and could end up facing powerhouses like Spain or Brazil in the opening group stage. The toughest group possible would involve the French playing with European champion Spain, Cameroon and the United States. All four of those teams are in the top 15 of FIFA's rankings. The draw will have four pots, with one team from each going into one of the eight groups. Pot 1 contains the eight seeded teams, Pot 2 will have the Asian and CONCACAF teams, Pot 3 will have African and South American teams, and Pot 4 will have the eight unseeded European teams. Besides South Africa, the other seeded teams are Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, defending champion Italy, Germany, Argentina and England. And apart from France, the top teams will also hope to avoid Portugal, which is led by world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo. The draw ceremony – under the iconic Table Mountain – is being set up as a truly African celebration. Nobel Peace laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Frederik W. de Klerk will be among the star-studded cast attending, and Nelson Mandela will address the crowd of 3,000 through a video message. At 91, Mandela is frail and makes few public appearances. FIFA reveals big prize money hike FIFA announced a 60 percent hike in prize money for next year's World Cup and offered Ireland “moral compensation” for missing out thanks to Thierry Henry's handball. Emerging from a historic meeting on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and current South African President Jacob Zuma were both jailed during the struggle against apartheid, FIFA's executive committee approved an increase in prize money for the 2010 championship in South Africa from $261 million to $420 million. FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke announced that the winner would take home $31 million while each of the 32 teams would receive at least $9 million if it does not progress from the first round. FIFA's 24-man executive also turned down calls to restrict the 2012 Olympic men's football tournament to players 21 and under, and will stick with an under-23 format plus three overage players for the London Games. European governing body UEFA wanted the change to ensure that top players stay with their clubs during preseason training. But the current format is popular with the International Olympic Committee because it allows teams to select some of the game's biggest names to play for the gold medal. Recognizing the rise and spread of women's international football, the executive committee also announced an expansion of the Women's World Cup from 16 teams from 24 in 2015, although no venue has yet been decided.
