Today’s draws shall have the eight groups named horizontally from A to H. Tier one shall be all the teams in Pot 1, Tier two shall be teams in Pot 2, Tier three shall be all the teams in Pot 3 and Tier four shall be the teams in Pot four. Teams have been classified into these pots based on FIFA’s latest rankings with Tier one made of the first eight teams, tier two teams from 9 – 16, Tier three from 17-24 and Tier four from 25 – 32. Hence you will find that when the draws are done the teams shall line up horizontally even though not in the order listed here
T1: Qatar Brazil Belgium France Argentina England Spain Portugal
T2: Mexico Netherlands Denmark Germany Uruguay Switzerland USA Croatia
T3: Senegal Iran Japan Morocco Serbia Poland South Korea Tunisia
T4: Cameroon Canada Ecuador Saudi Arabia Ghana IC Play Off 1 IC Play Off 2 EU Play Off
Two of Africa’s soccer legends, Algerian Rabah Madjer and Nigerian Jay-J Okocha are part of the eight-man team who will conduct today’s draw. They had been selected long before the Green Eagles of Nigeria and the of Algeria got eliminated last Tuesday by the Black Stars of Ghana and the Indomitable lions of Cameroon. They will join Cafu from Brazil, Lothar Matthaus of Germany, Tim Cahill of Australia, Adel Ahmed of Qatar, Ali Daei of Iran and Bora Milutinovic of Serbia. Since the magnificence of the Cameroonian team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the Senegalese team in 2002 that progressed as far as the Quarter Finals, most African teams have hardly gone beyond the round of 16. Africa’s luck to progress out of the first stage of the competition depends on what group they fall in and hope the brilliance of these two stars brings luck to the African teams.