FIFA to announce seeding

FIFA will be announcing their seeding criteria later today, I can't find out when exactly, but this afternoon at the latest I'm sure

This is where we will find out if England make it into pot A rather than the second European pot (presumably)

Jonathan Pearce has written a comprehensive blog about it, as he's going to the draw on Friday

Personally I think, knowing FIFA, that the October rankings will be highly important, because they probably won't want the 3rd placed Netherlands to miss out after fairly average 2002, 2006 and 2008 results, particularly if the 2006 finalists France get in instead, this would in turn, help us out

If they go for the two previous world cups rather than the slightly more awkward regional tournaments then we should be quids in with two quarter finals, just like in 2006 when we were somehow second seeds...despite not being ranked second, ever, and not seeing a semi-final in decades, let alone a final..so you never know!

It is of course possible that it's screwed up, FIFA seem to be incredibly pro-French and manipulated the European play-offs in the same way, but it seems fairly pointless to stir up another hornet's nest in lieu of France's dire form, and of course, that Irish incident - either way, if we miss out, it's likely the Dutch will miss out, which would be utterly retarded, so it'll be a moral victory and they'll be at least two or three teams that we can avoid in the Euro pot

It's generally a given that FIFA will have decided their seeds first and will have then decided their criteria second, hopefully they will feel Capello's side is good enough

It's all theoretical, but here's the likely pots according to Pearce

definite seeds:
SA
Brazil
Spain
Italy
---
likely:
Germany
Argentina
Netherlands
England

There will most likely be a pot of Africa and South America

Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
Ivory Coast
Algeria
Cameroon
Ghana
Nigeria

Europe will fill in the blanks, and should be simple this time if it gets 5 seeds, leaving 8

[France]
[Portugal]
Greece
Denmark
Switzerland
Serbia
Slovenia
Slovakia

Remainders will presumably be North America, Asia and New Zealand

Honduras
Mexico
US
New Zealand
Australia
Japan
S.Korea
N.Korea

Seems pretty simple this time round - obviously a seeded spot would give us a better group, but we may we wanting to avoid France/Argentina/Portugal if we are anyway

Any thoughts on who we want (to avoid)? Also what will be the 'group of death' this time around?