FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFYING DRAW
- Venue: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Date: Saturday 30 July
- Starts: 1900 BST
- Coverage: Live text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles from 1830 BST, snippets and live European draw on BBC Radio 5 Live from 1900 and live TV coverage on BBC News Channel from 2023.
England and potential qualifying opponents France are familiar foes
England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will learn their 2014 World Cup qualifying groups when the draw is made in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday evening.
England are among the top seeds and could face 1998 world champions France, who are in pot two along with the likes of Russia and Sweden.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are in pot four, with Wales in pot six with San Marino, Malta and Andorra.
Giovanni Trapattoni's Republic of Ireland are in pot three.
The pot allocations are based on the Fifa world rankings, which were revealed on Wednesday. England dropped to sixth, down two places.
Fifa World Cup pools
- Pot One: England, Spain, Holland, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Greece
- Pot Two: France, Montenegro, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia
- Pot Three: Switzerland, Israel, Rep of Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary
- Pot Four: N Ireland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Lithuania, Albania, Austria, Poland
- Pot Five: Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Moldova, FYR Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands
- Pot Six: Wales, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra, San Marino
The Welsh are now joint 112th with the Faroe Islands in the rankings, but the Faroes have got the final place in pot five, sending Gary Speed's men into the final pot.
With 53 European countries entered in the World Cup qualifying draw, teams will be drawn in eight groups of six teams and one group of five.
Each group winner will automatically qualify for the finals in Brazil, and four places will also be available via play-offs, making up a 13-team European contingent.
In the qualifying process 203 teams will play an eventual 824 matches across the globe.
The draws for the Africa, Asia, Oceania and the North, Central America and Caribbean regions will also take place on Saturday, with no draw made for South America as the nine teams qualify through a one-group championship mode.
The 2014 finals will take place 12 June-13 July, and a decision on whether to introduce goalline technology at the tournament will be taken at next March's meeting of the International FA Board, the game's lawmakers.
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