[D-Kin]

Azzurri seeds in 2010 draw Wednesday 21 November, 2007

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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 groups on Friday, it is based on the latest FIFA World Rankings, so the Italian media has been calculating the odds.

It is believed the nine European seeds for the 2010 South Africa tournament will be Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany and England.

This means that, unlike the Euro 2008 qualifiers, the Azzurri cannot be drawn in the same group as France.

The ceremony to pick the qualifying groups will be made in Durban, South Africa on Sunday afternoon.

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 of five.

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

channel4.com - Football Italia

Well at least we'll be top seeds this time (unlike the Euro).