FIFA announces draw pots, procedures for 2014 World Cup

FIFA has announced the pots and approved the procedures of Friday's draw for the 2014 World Cup finals to be held in Brazil.

As already announced, the seeded teams have been selected on the basis of the October edition of the World Ranking and will be placed into Pot 1, where each one will be drawn into Groups from A to H, reports Xinhua.

The remaining teams from each pot will be drawn into one of the eight four-side groups.

As the host, Brazil has been automatically allocated the A1 position in the draw.

Based on the geographic separation, teams from the same qualification zones cannot be drawn into the same group. And only one exception under this rule is: maximum of two European teams may enter any one group.

To make all pots balanced with eight teams, a pre-draw session will be held to move one of the European teams from Pot 4 into Pot 2.

That European team must then be drawn against one of the four seeded South American teams in Pot 1 to ensure that no more than two Euro teams will appear in a group.

The four South American seeds; Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, will form a temporary Pot X. The three teams not drawn against the European team in Pot 2 will return to the main draw.

The draw, which will be held Dec 6, will be broadcast live on free-to-air-channels in no fewer than 193 countries and regions, according to FIFA.