Ireland in third pot for World Cup qualification

The pots for Saturday’s draw the 2014 World Cup qualifying groups were revealed today.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland are in Pot Three, England are in Pot One, while Scotland and Northern Ireland are in Pot Four.

Wales’ recent struggles are reflected in their placing in Pot Six, alongside the likes of San Marino, Malta and Andorra.

The pot allocations are based on the latest FIFA world rankings.

Meanwhile, FIFA today announced that the 2014 World Cup finals will start on June 12 and finish on July 13.

The announcement comes three days before the preliminary draw for the tournament, comprising 203 teams playing an eventual 824 matches across the globe.

At a news conference in Rio, FIFA president Sepp Blatter also announced that a decision whether to introduce goalline technology would be taken at next March’s meeting in London of the International FA Board, the game’s lawmakers.

If approved, he said, it could be implemented at the World Cup finals two years later.

FIFA also announced that the World Cup play-off system, heavily criticised after Thierry Henry’s infamous handball for France against Ireland, would be maintained.

European qualification zone pots for World Cup draw on Saturday (teams will be drawn in eight groups of six teams and one group of five):

POT ONE: Spain, Holland, Germany, England, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Greece

POT TWO: France, Montenegro, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia

POT THREE: Switzerland, Israel, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary

POT FOUR: Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Lithuania, Albania, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Poland

POT FIVE: Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Moldova, FYR Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands

POT SIX: Wales, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra, San Marino.