World Cup 2010 Draw – The Facts

World Cup 2010 Draw

The 2010 World Cup kicks off in 188 days in South Africa and today is the day when the 32 competing nations find out their fate when the group stage draw is made.

For footie fans the world over here’s a few facts and figures to mull over as we wait with anticipation on the live draw later tonight.

Where: Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

When: 4 December 2009, 5pm GMT.

Coverage: Check local listings

Tournament format: The 32 countries will be split into eight groups of four. The top two in each group will progress to the knock-out stages, with group winners facing runners-up in the last 16.

The draw: The competing nations have been split into four pots, and every group will contain one team from each pot. Pot one comprises the hosts South Africa, plus seven seeded teams. Pot two consists of the remaining European teams; pot three contains teams from Africa and South America; and pot four features teams from Asia, Oceania and North/Central America.

The Seeds:

Pot 1 – South Africa, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, Holland, Argentina.

Pot 2 – Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.

Pot 3 – Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay.

Pot 4 – France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.

The seeded teams were chosen based on the Fifa world rankings as they stood in October this year. The October rankings were used because teams who had to go through play-offs would otherwise have benefited from having played additional competitive games in the past three months, which are given greater weight in the rankings than friendlies.

Later there will be a Girls special when the draw is concluded showing each nation in their designated group represented by a beauty for each country.

Posted on December 4, 2009 | Filed Under Football