Avoid France and Argentina, the prize in World Cup lottery

Nov 30th, 2001

PUSAN, South Korea, Nov 30 (AFP) -- The most complex World Cup finals draw staged yet will be held here Saturday but most coaches will be happy just to avoid the path of favourites and holders France.

If getting the number of nations down from 198 to 32 was a long and often bitter affair, the first round draw has become a Chinese puzzle for the international governing body FIFA, and only partly because the most populous nation has qualified for the first time.

With the tournament hosted by two countries -- South Korea and Japan -- for the first time, the best teams and the not-so-good will have to be carefully divided between the two Asian nations.

National coaches started arriving for the draw in the new Pusan convention centre anxious not to see their teams put in the same groups as world and European champions France or South America's strongest side Argentina.

Four groups of four teams will be based in South Korea and four in Japan. It is already known that France will head group A in Korea so no-one was keen to join them. Sven Goran Eriksson, coach to the resurgent England side, said: "France, Italy and Argentina are the favourites, so I would appreciate it if they are not in our group." Even less fancied teams want the chance to extend their stay at the finals as long as possible. Nigeria's captain Sunday Oliseh said: "We will definitely be praying against playing Argentina or France."

Four-time winners Brazil just scraped through this time but their under-pressure coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was happy to see more attention on their rivals. "Everyone agrees that France and Argentina are the favourites," said Scolari, before adding: "But its a good thing for us that the pressure is on them." The ceremony will start on Saturday with American singer Anastacia singing the official World Cup song "Boom," then FIFA president Joseph Blatter will set underway the draw.

The governing body's general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen admitted it was the most difficult ever staged. "This is the most complicated we have done. There are two host nations and the rest from different continents will have to be carefully shared out. There are so many permutations, this has needed a lot of work," said Zen Ruffinen.

The eight seeded teams -- the holders, the hosts and Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Spain -- will head each of the eight groups. But South Korea and Japan have each insisted on getting a fair share of the glamour teams and games and there are other political considerations. So Argentina and Brazil will be separated between the two. Japan, home to a large expatriate Brazilian community, is known to want Brazil. But the other South American representatives -- Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay -- cannot be placed in a group with the one of the two continental giants. FIFA has also decided that China will play in South Korea, so Asia's other qualified representative, Saudi Arabia will be in Japan. But neither can be in the same group as the host nations so that all the Asian competitors are kept apart.

The 11 European teams who are not seeded are placed into their own pot for the draw. The first eight drawn will be allocated to each group. The three remaining are then drawn into groups with non-European seeds.

The system means that England could be drawn in a first round group with France or old rivals Germany, who they beat 5-1 in the key qualifying match. The fourth team in each group will be drawn from a pot containing five African teams -- Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia -- and three from Central and North America -- Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States.

At least two African and one American team will play in each host country.

The tournament starts with the opening match in Seoul on May 31, which will feature France, and finishes with the final in Yokohama, Japan on June 30.