Nigeria will be in Pot 2 when the draw for the 2014 World Cup holds on Friday in Brazil, FIFA has said.
FIFA on Tuesday released the make-up of the four pots that will be used for the draw.
As was known before the announcement, pot
one consists of hosts Brazil along with the seven top-ranked teams –
Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay.
However, while it was widely expected
that France might join the remaining South American and African nations
to form another pot of eight, they have actually been placed in a group
of nine with the other European qualifiers in pot four.
Pot two will contain Algeria, Cameroon,
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile and Ecuador, while pot three is made
up of Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico
and the United States.
To ensure that all pots contain eight
teams, one ball will be drawn from pot four at the beginning of the draw
and placed into pot two.
As two nations from the same
confederation are not permitted to be in the same group – with the
exception of UEFA countries – the European team drawn from pot four in
the pre-draw will immediately be assigned one of the four South American
seeds, with the remaining three going back into the draw.
Along with France, pot four consists of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Russia.
PUNCH
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