Italy Seeding Boost

With the World Cup draw coming up on Friday, Italy boss Marcello Lippi will be sleeping well tonight after his side were seeded.

There had been considerable doubt surrounding which pot the Azzurri would be in, seeing as they aren't in the top eight of the FIFA World Rankings and they have also performed disappointingly in the last two tournaments - losing in the quarter-final to France in 1998 and then in the second round to South Korea in 2002.

However, FIFA have today announced that Italy will join the likes of England, Brazil and Argentina in the first pot. The draw takes place in Leipzig's Neue Messe exhibition centre on Friday night in front of just under 4,000 people.

Pot 1: Germany (hosts), Brazil (holders), Argentina, England, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain

Pot 2: Australia, Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Tunisia, Ecuador, Paraguay

Pot 3: Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine

Pot 4: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, USA

Special Pot: Serbia & Montenegro (as no group can have more than two European sides in it)

They just pipped the US I think, which is tough luck for the US squad as they have come on so much over the past 8 years.

I hope Italy play to their potenial this World Cup.

I guess we will have to earn the respect....it's ironic, we beat Mexico to clinch our World Cup group, ended up the top team in qualifying (above them), yet it seems there play in the Confed's Cup helped them quite a bit....and they did play well, beating Brazil is a 'feather in there hat'...

The US will just take it as another challenge to prove people wrong, or it will show that the draw was correct.....we'll just go from there......

yeah hopefully they do! But they always seem to get everyone against them due to dirty play (diving, spitting, etc).

Hopefully they live up to their potential!!

Jaime, I'm a bit confused....who are you referring to when you say 'dirty play'? The U.S?

I know that Pot 1 is the best teams but are they supposed to get worse thru Pot 2,3,4? So every team in Pot 3 is rated less than the teams in Pot 2?

If so i think there is something wrong with their systems, or maybe it just doesnt matter after Pot 1 is decided.

Help.

Jono, bottom line is to understand it all you need to be smoking Pot, because obviously who ever put it all together was.....It's as big as joke as the Fifa Country ratings......But, nothings going to change, so we just have to buy in to their lunacy.......

It belies belief how they can rate the Czech Republic and Holland behind Togo and Ecuador.