FIFA seedings for 2002 World Cup

Host countries Japan and South Korea, defending champions France, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Brazil and Spain have been named as the seeded teams for the 2002 football World Cup ahead of Saturday's draw.

The remaining 24 teams will be divided into three pots along geographical lines.

The final seeded spot went to Spain, who lie seventh in the FIFA rankings and qualified for the last two finals.

The draw groupings:

POT 1 (seeds): France, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Spain

POT 2 (CAF and CONCACAF): South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico

POT 3 (UEFA): Poland, Sweden, Russia, Portugal, Denmark, Croatia, England, Belgium, Slovenia, Turkey, Republic of Ireland

POT 4 (AFC, CONMEBOL, OFC): Ecuador, Paraguay, China, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay

The Organising Committee meeting on November 28 in the coastal city of Busan in Korea under the chairmanship of FIFA vice-president and UEFA president Lennart Johansson, decided to retain a virtually similar seeding system for the 2002 event as four years ago for France 1998 and put Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Spain as top seeds for the Final Draw on Saturday, December 1, together with the ex officio qualified teams of hosts Korea and Japan and titleholder France.

In order to determine the seeded teams, sporting criteria were used. Past FIFA World Cups (France 98, USA 94 and Italia 90) were weighted with the ratio 3:2:1 whereas the FIFA World Rankings from 2001, 2000 and 1999 were weighted 1:1:1.

Brazil topped the list with 62 points, followed by Argentina and Italy with 56, Germany with 54 and Spain with 45 points. Mexico with 42 points and England with 41 points came next but failed to make it among the top-seeded teams.

The Committee further decided to put the remaining 11 European teams into one pot (Pot 2). Out of this pot, one European team will be drawn per group. For geographical reasons, the remaining three European representatives will then be drawn into groups with non-European top-seeded teams.

The remaining three contenders from South America and Asia’s two other representatives will be put into Pot 3 and drawn into the remaining five groups after Pot 2 has been emptied. It was decided that, for geographical and economical reasons, China would be allocated to a group in Korea whereas Saudi Arabia will play in Japan.

The five African teams and the three teams from CONCACAF will be drawn last with at least two African teams and one from CONCACAF playing in either Korea or Japan.

The Committee also confirmed that any yellow cards (single yellows or more than one yellow card in more than one game) will be cancelled for the FIFA World Cup final competition. However, any match suspensions still not yet served as a consequence of red cards will be carried over into the final competition.