France and Portugal miss out

France and Portugal have not been named among the eight top seeds for next summer's World Cup.

FIFA's World Cup organising committee announced the seeds on Wednesday based on October's FIFA world rankings.

The host country South Africa plus Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England were named as the top seeds.

France and Portugal both needed a play-off to reach next summer's tournament, the French beating the Republic of Ireland in controversial circumstances and the Portuguese seeing of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The eight top seeds could all still end up in a tough group in Friday's draw, though.

There will be four pots in the draw - one containing the top seeds, pot two with countries from Asia, Oceania and north/central America, the third pot with the five other African nations and three South American countries, and a fourth pot containing the other eight European countries.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England.

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay.

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.