Fifa to seed World Cup play-offs

Fifa has decided that the draw for the European Zone play-offs for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil will be seeded later this year.

Controversy raged four years ago when the governing body of world football reversed an open-draw policy and introduced seedings based on the Fifa world ranking of national teams shortly before the eight teams were paired off, leading to a clash between the Republic of Ireland and France.

This year the World Cup Local Organising Committee announced its decision four months in advance of the draw in Zurich on October 21, with Fifa world rankings published four days earlier determining which four teams will be kept apart. A separate draw for each pairing will decide home advantage in the first leg matches, scheduled for November 15, followed by the return matches four days later.