WC 2002: How the draw works
Nov 30th, 2001
The organising committee for the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals in Korea/Japan has decided how Saturday’s draw for the tournament will work. Eight seeds Criteria for seeds Remaining eleven teams Other contenders African teams Pot One: (the seeds) France, Korean Republic, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Spain Pot Two: (the non-seeded Europeans) Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey Pot Three: Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, China, Saudi Arabia Pot Four: Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Mexico, United States
UEFA
Four-time champions Brazil and twice-winners Argentina are both among the group of eight seeds. They are joined by holders France, three-time winners Italy and Germany, who won the tournament three times as West Germany. Hosts Japan and the Korean Republic are also seeded along with Spain.
In order to determine the seeded teams, several sporting criteria were used, including performances in the past three FIFA World Cup tournaments and the FIFA world rankings from the past three years. 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 seeded teams due to the presence of the hosts and holders.
The committee also decided to put the remaining eleven European teams into one pot (Pot Two). 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 (Paraguay, Ecuador and Uruguay) and Asia's two other representatives (Saudi Arabia and China) will be put into Pot Three and drawn into the remaining five groups after Pot Two 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.