The World Cup seedings are out. Only FIFA could shroud the process in such secrecy.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia

Thinking aloud now: the worst possible draw for England on Friday would be something along the lines of – USA, Ivory Coast and Portugal. And I’d be happy with New Zealand, Uruguay and Switzerland. It’ll probably not be that cut and dried.