FIFA begin World Cup draw in Brazil

The Republic of Ireland awaits tonight's draw for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

This evening’s draw for the European section will take place at approximately 8.15pm Irish time, an hour and a quarter into full proceedings at the Marinia da Gloria in Rio which will begin with the draw for the African section.

A total of 53 European teams go into tonight’s draw for allocation to eight qualifying groups of six and one of five.

Ireland will be in Pot 3 which means that the fellow seeds they can’t draw in qualifying are Switzerland, Israel, Belgium, Czech Republic, Bosnia, Belarus, Ukraine and Hungary.

Among the glamour opponents who could come Ireland’s way are any one of World Cup finalists Spain and Holland, as well as their fellow first seeds Germany, England and Italy.

Giovanni Trapattoni has already said that he would be happy to have another crack at his homeland or even France, both are live possibilities ahead of the draw since France are seeded in Pot 2.

Another intriguing possibility is that the present Irish manager could come up against a former one, should Ireland happen to draw the Faroe Islands who have graduated to fifth seeds under the stewardship of Brian Kerr.

From the point of view of making qualifying life easier for Ireland, at least on paper, Trapattoni would hardly complain if his team found themselves pitted against first seeds Norway, a surprise inclusion in the top flight considering that they have not qualified for tournament finals since Euro 2000.

But FIFA’s coefficients now concentrate on results from the past four years which means that, according to their rankings, the top nine teams in Europe going into this evening’s draw are Spain, Holland, Germany, England, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Norway and Greece.

France are in the second pot, which also contains Montenegro, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey and Serbia.

Ireland, currently ranked 33, are in Pot 3.

POT 1: Spain, Germany, Greece, England, Croatia, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal

POT 2: France, Montenegro, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia

POT 3: Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, Israel, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary

POT 4: Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Lithuania, Albania, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Poland

POT 5: Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Moldova, FYR Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands

POT 6: Andorra, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, San Marino, Wales