Switzerland joins non-seeds in World Cup draw

Fifa, the world's governing football body, has revealed the make-up of the four pots which will be used in the final draw for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Switzerland, France and Portugal are in pot four and are therefore unseeded, according to a statement from Fifa’s Zurich headquarters on Wednesday.

Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England are the seven squads that join hosts South Africa as seeded teams for the draw on Friday in Cape Town. The seeding was based on Fifa’s October 2009 world ranking.

France’s disputed victory of the Republic of Ireland currently puts them in seventh place but they were ninth in October.

Four years ago football’s governing body established a ranking system based on the three previous seasons.

Pot four contains all the non-seeded European teams, none of whom will play each other in the first round. Pots two and three contain the teams from Asia, America and Oceania.

Pot 1 : South Africa, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England

Pot 2: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Honduras, Mexico, USA and New Zealand

Pot 3: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay

Pot 4: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland

swissinfo.ch