FIFA on Tuesday officially announced the pots for the 2014 World Cup draw, which takes place Friday in Brazil. Pot 1 consists of the tournament’s top eight seeds, which includes host Braziland the top seven teams in the world according to FIFA’s ranking system: Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Uruguay. Pot 2 contains the five teams from Africa, as wellas Chile and Ecuador from South America. Pot 3 has the four teams from Asia and the four teams from North and Central America, including the USA. Pot 4 contains nine teams from Europe.
SincePot 2 only has seven teams and Pot 4 has nine teams, FIFA is introducing a “Pot X” which will randomly place one of the European teams into Pot 2 so that all pots have eight teams. Each ofthe South American seeded teams in Pot 1 (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay) will then be drawn alongside the Pot X team from Europe to ensure that no group contains more than two Europeanteams. Chile and Ecuador from Pot 2 will then be withdrawn from the Pot X grouping so that no two South American teams will be drawn into the same group.
The full list is as follows:
Pot 1:
- Brazil (Pot X)
- Spain
- Argentina (Pot X)
- Colombia (Pot X)
- Switzerland
- Belgium
- Germany
- Uruguay (Pot X)
Pot 2:
- Ghana
- Cameroon
- Ivory Coast
- Algeria
- Nigeria
- Chile
- Ecuador
- EuropeanTeam X
Pot 3:
- United States
- Mexico
- Honduras
- Costa Rica
- Iran
- South Korea
- Japan
- Australia
Pot 4:
- England
- Netherlands
- Italy
- Portugal
- Russia
- Croatia
- Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Greece
- France