Azzurri seeds in World Cup draw?

Holders Italy are set to be one of the nine European seeds in the 2010 World Cup draw to be held on Sunday.

Although FIFA will only officially confirm the seeding pots on Friday when they publish the latest FIFA World Rankings, the Italian media has already been calculating the outcome.

It is reported the nine European seeds for the 2010 qualifying tournament will be Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany and England.

The ceremony to draw the qualifying groups will be made in Durban, South Africa on Sunday afternoon. The draw will commence with the Asian zone, followed by CONCACAF, Europe and finally Africa.

Exempt from the draw are South America, whose qualifiers are already underway in a home-and-away league format, and Oceania, whose preliminary competition began with the South Pacific Games in August.

Italy are currently third in the FIFA World Rankings behind Brazil and Argentina. The 53 European nations will be divided into eight groups of six teams each and one group of five.

The nine top teams will directly enter the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, while the eight second-placed sides do battle in play-offs to whittle down the total 13 European entries.

Draw takes place on Sunday 2 December at 1500 (UK Time) in Durban, South Africa.

Source: C4 Football Italia