Shock as England could be demoted out of top World Cup seedings

Fabio Capello was stunned last night to learn that England could be demoted out of the top seedings for Friday’s World Cup draw.

The organising committee will meet today in Cape Town to decide the formula for determining which seven teams will join hosts South Africa in the top pot.

England had expected the formula to be form in the last two tournaments plus current FIFA world rankings.

But there is a growing movement in FIFA to use just world rankings for the past three years, a system which would see England relegated below Holland, thanks to their loss to Ukraine in qualifying.

A FIFA source said last night: “There’s no front-runner in terms of how the seedings will be decided and there will be arguments.

“Seedings in 2002 and 2006 were determined by a mixture of previous results and rankings.

“But there’s a view we need to make the rankings mean more, as every match, including friendlies, contribute to them.

“Nobody knows what will happen or what criteria will be used.”