LEIPZIG, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Hosts Germany and defending champions Brazil were named among the top eight seeds for the World Cup finals as expected on Tuesday, along with England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina and Italy.
FIFA decided the rest of the draw, which takes place on Friday, would group teams in pots according to their geographical locations rather than their current world ranking or previous World Cup performances. The USA and Holland have both just missed out on being seeded.
The second pot will contain Australia, the five African finalists: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Angola and Togo, plus the two lower ranked South American teams Ecuador and Paraguay.
The third pot will comprise eight European teams: Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.
The fourth pot will comprise four Asian teams: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the three remaining from CONCACAF Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.
A special pot will contain only Serbia & Montenegro, the lowest ranked European team, who will be placed in a group including either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico.
FIFA created the special pot so they could avoid having any groups with more than two European teams.
Jim Brown, FIFA's Director of Competitions explained: 'The seedings were based on FIFA rankings for the last three years and the last two World Cup finals.
'Germany will be seeded in slot A1 in the draw and Brazil in F1, and there were economic factors involved in this decision as those teams are guaranteed to play in larger stadiums.'
One team from each pot will be drawn into the eight groups in the first stage of the finals in Germany which run from June 9 to July 9.
The seedings system looked at teams' record in the 2002 and 1998 finals and their world ranking over the last three years.
Under the seedings system Brazil have 64 points followed by England (51), Spain (50), Germany (48), Mexico (47), France (46), Argentina (44) and Italy (44). The USA had 43 points and Holland 38.
Under the new seeding system, performances at the 2002 World Cup were given twice as much weight as at 1998, and the only surprise was that FIFA decided against using performances at the 1994 finals.
FIFA also confirmed the 23-man squads for the World Cup must be submitted by May 15 and no player will be allowed to appear for their clubs afterwards.
The only exception is the Champions League final on May 17. It means World Cup players will not be allowed to take part in the Football League play-off matches if their clubs are involved in those games after May 15.
FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi said: 'We do not want burnt-out players coming to the World Cup. They have to have sufficient time to recover and to prepare with their national team.
'The 23 players on the list will not be available for any other competition after May 15, apart from the Champions League final on May 17.'
Friday's draw will work in the following way:
The eight seeded teams will be drawn into eight different groups. Germany have already been allocated Group A and Brazil Group F.
Eight unseeded European sides will be drawn into the eight different groups.
The lowest-ranked European side Serbia and Montenegro will be allocated to one of the groups containing either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico to ensure there is no more than two European sides in any group.
A pot of the five African countries, Australia and the two remaining South American sides drawn into eight different groups.
A pot containing the four Asian countries, the USA, Costa Rica and Trinidad drawn into seven different groups.
The full draw for the finals takes place in Leipzig on Friday. The finals start on June 9 and end on July 9, 2006.
