World Cup: FIFA reveals pots plan for Friday's tournament draw

FIFA has announced the allocation of pots for Friday's World Cup draw, with England, as expected, unseeded for the tournament in Brazil.

The host nation will join the top seven teams in world football, according to FIFA's official rankings as of October, in Pot 1.

The two unseeded South American sides will join the five African qualifiers in Pot 2, with teams from the Asia, Oceania and CONCACAF regions making up Pot 3.

FIFA announce the teams in each pot ahead of the World Cup final draw on Friday

England are among nine unseeded countries in the final Pot, although one of those will be drawn at random and moved into Pot 2 before the main draw in order to ensure there is an even distribution of countries in each pot.

That team will definitely face one of the seeded South American sides, to eliminate the possibility of more than two European sides being drawn in the same group.

One team will then be drawn from each pot to form eight groups with four teams in each.

Pot 1:

Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland

Pot 2:

Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria

Pot 3:

Australia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, USA

Pot 4:

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia

The draw will take place in the north-eastern city of Salvador.

World Cup draw pots

• Pot 1: Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay, Switzerland.
• Pot 2: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ecuador.
• Pot 3: Japan, Iran, Korea Republic, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras.
• Pot 4: Holland, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Russia, France (one country to be selected at random to join Pot 2).

England's dream scenario would probably be to be paired with Switzerland, Iran and Algeria, while it may be considered that a group involving Spain, Chile and the United States would represent a nightmare draw.

However, England boss Roy Hodgson has already insisted he is more concerned about the venues his team will play at next summer, rather than the opposition.

Hodgson told Sky Sports News: "We will go to Brazil believing that whatever group we get we are capable of getting out of it.

"Before the draw, what preoccupies me the most is where we are going to be drawn because that will have an effect on the Northern European teams.

"If there is any good luck going, I hope it will be in relation to where we are due to play because whatever group we get is going to be a tough group."