World Cup seeding boost for England

ENGLAND will go into next summer’s World Cup finals with the official tag as the second-best side on the planet.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side came out second behind Brazil in the seedings system devised by FIFA’s World Cup organising committee and announced in Leipzig yesterday.

As one of the eight top seeds, England will be kept apart from other heavyweights for the group stages. Hosts Germany, holders Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Spain and France are also seeded.

This is the first time England have been seeded since 1990 and could help their chances.

Eriksson said: “I think it’s the right decision. We are one of the teams that have the potential to do very well in Germany and we have some of the best players in the world.

“Finishing top of our qualification group with the second-best record in the whole of Europe was a big achievement and I’m sure that has played a part in this decision.

“This is a big boost but, when the tournament starts, we must show on the pitch why we have been seeded.

“I’m very happy we are seeded because we will avoid a lot of good teams in the group stages - it means we are doing very well.

Eriksson added: “I have always been very confident we can win the World Cup.”

The rest of the teams will be drawn on a geographical basis so that, for example, two African sides are not in the same group and not more than two European teams in one group.

The winner and runner-up in each group will go through to the last 16, but even with the seedings there is still every chance of a tough group.

English FA chairman Geoff Thompson said the seedings announcement was “excellent news” but warned that did not guarantee an easy draw on Friday - for example, England could still be drawn in a group with Holland, the Ivory Coast and 2002 semi-finalists Korea.

Thompson said: “The emerging nations give a very good account of themselves these days so it is never going to be easy.”

FIFA’s seeding system looked at teams’ records in the 2002 and 1998 finals and their world ranking over the last three years. Germany will be in Group A and Brazil in Group F.

The other sides will not know their groups until Friday’s draw.

GROUPS for Friday’s World Cup draw. (Teams can’t be placed into a group with a team from the same confederation, except for Europe, which can have up to two teams in a group):

Pot One (seeded): Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain.

Pot Two: Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Tunisia (Africa); Ecuador, Paraguay (South America); Australia (Oceania).

Pot Three: Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine (Europe).

Pot Four: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea (Asia); Costa Rica, United States, Trinidad and Tobago (North and Central America and Caribbean).

Special Pot: Serbia-Montenegro (will be placed in group with Argentina, Brazil or Mexico).