Fifa will go ahead with
its controversial decision to stage World Cup matches at midday in
tropical venues, president Sepp Blatter said on Tuesday as football's
governing body announced a bafflingly complex procedure for Friday'
General Secretary Jerome Valcke caused
general bewilderment as he tried to explain the workings of the draw which will
decide which teams comprise the eight first-round groups at next year's
tournament."It's not easy to understand it the first time, I agree with
you" he said. "It took me some time to be sure I had the right
explanation."
Each group will consist of one team from each of four pots
with Pot 1 featuring the top seeds: Brazil, the host nation, alongside Colombia,
Argentina, Uruguay, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.
The other
pots will be based on geographical criteria so that countries from the same
confederations are kep apart.Pot 2 will contain the five African teams,
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon, plus the non-seeded South
American teams Chile and Ecuador and a European team to be moved out of Pot 4 in
a pre-draw.
Pot 3 will feature Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia,
United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras while nine European sides,
Bosnia, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and
France, will comprise Pot 4.
Valcke revealed that a pre-draw will be held
to move one of the nine European teams into Pot 2 where they would then be drawn
against one of the four seeded South American teams to preserve the geographical
balance of the draw.
To complicate matters further, the four South
American seeds would form a temporary Pot X and the three not drawn against the
European team in Pot 2 will return to the main draw.FIFA
