D Friday, December 4, 2009 METROSPORT 23 Supported By How it all works THERE are 32 teams who have qualified for the finals in South Africa and they will be seeded into four pots of eight when the World Cup 2010 draw takes place in Cape Town at 5pm this evening. Teams will then be drawn into eight groups of four, with sides ranked as first, second, third and fourth seeds. No more than two European teams can be drawn in the same group, with the top two from each group qualifying for the last 16. Holders Italy will be hopeful of a favourable draw from pot one as they look to retain the trophy they won in Germany in 2006 (pictured right). POT ONE POT TWO POT THREE POT FOUR Argentina Brazil England Germany Italy Spain South Africa Holland Australia New Zealand Honduras Japan North Korea South Korea Mexico United States Algeria Cameroon Chile Ghana Ivory Coast Paraguay Nigeria Uruguay France Portugal Slovenia Switzerland Greece Serbia Denmark Slovakia THE 2010 DRAW IN FIGURES 134.5million The number of global TV viewers for the 2006 draw 2,000 Guests who will be at the Cape Town International Convention Centre 800 Media, including journalists and reporters, expected at the draw ceremony 0 Argentina managers present at the draw Diego Maradona is currently serving a worldwide Fifa ban 25 Lothar Matthaus of Germany and West Germanys record number of finals appearances 12 The most successful qualifying attempts by a country the four-time winners Italy Missing out: Maradona Glamour draw: Actress Charlize Theron will do the honours SOCCER world Cup drAw world Cup contenders: Spain are ranked No.1 in the world after winning Euro 2008 (pictured) and winning all ten qualifying games en route to South Africa Picture: Getty Martinez fears a Spanish letdownBy pAul Murphy Spain could crack under the men- tal pressure of expectation at next years World Cup finals in South africa, fearsWigans Spanish-born manager Roberto Martinez ahead of todays draw in Cape Town. as reigning European champions and as the new world no.1 team in the Fifa rankings, Spain are rightly being lauded as potential winners. However, Spains World Cup record is appalling, earning them the reputation of underachievers as they have never progressed beyond the quarter-finals since finishing fourth in 1950. assessing the tournament, Mar- tinez said: i feel the World Cup is more open than people think. First and foremost im looking at teams that havent been given much re- spect like Serbia and Slovakia, who had great qualifying runs. You look at the african teams playing in South africa, who will have a little extra boost, a little ex- tra confidence, a little bit of a feel that theyre playing at home. Then you look at Brazil and ar- gentina, the latter i believe has the best squad of players in world football, but as a team they have not clicked yet. Looking at his fellow country- men, who enjoyed a perfect quali- fying tournament in winning all ten games, Martinez added: i bel- ieve the expectations are going to put us under massive pressure. Yes, weve a great formula foot- ball-wise, theyre different to any- one else, and weve very talented players. But its the first time theyre going to the World Cup with the fa- vourites label attached to them, and mentally that is going to be very, very tough to handle. SoCCEr will retain its current under-23 status at the 2012 olympics in london, Fifa have confirmed. The world governing body had been looking into changing the system to under-21. Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke said: There were quite extensive discussions but it was decided to keep the current system. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html