World Cup 2010 Draw Rules

Here are the groupings for Friday's World Cup draw. Seeding for the top 8 were strictly set on the top teams from the October 2009 FIFA World Rankings. Only the top 7 will be included, as the host South Africa gets the 8th top seed. One team will then be drawn from each pot to make up the 8 groups of 4 teams each. There are also going to be zonal considerations taken into effect when pairing teams up. Here is the note from FIFA on how that will work: "Geographical criteria will also be respected, meaning that no two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group). For example, South Africa cannot play the African teams from Pot 3 and Argentina and Brazil cannot be drawn against the three remaining South American teams."

The pots:

1: Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, & Spain

2: (Teams from Asia, CONCACAF & Oceania) Australia, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, North Korea, South Korea & USA

3: (Teams from Africa & CONMEBOL) Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Paraguay & Uruguay

4: (Teams from Europe) Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia & Switzerland

Sadly my prediction (see very bottom of the site for all my bold predictions) of the USA & North Korea being in the same group now cannot come true. So much for the possibility of me being Brustradamus.