World Cup 2010 draw: the details
The World Cup draw will be presented by the South African Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Where: Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa
When: 4 December 2009, 5pm GMT.
Tournament format: The 32 countries will be split into eight groups of four. The top two in each group will progress to the knock-out stages, with group winners facing runners-up in the last 16.
The draw: The competing nations have been split into four pots, and every group will contain one team from each pot. Pot one comprises the hosts South Africa, plus seven seeded teams. Pot two consists of the remaining European teams; pot three contains teams from Africa and South America; and pot four features teams from Asia, Oceania and North/Central America.
Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, Holland, Argentina.
Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, 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.
The seeded teams were chosen based on the Fifa world rankings as they stood in October this year. The October rankings were used because teams who had to go through play-offs would otherwise have benefited from having played additional competitive games in the past three months, which are given greater weight in the rankings than friendlies.
The show: The South African Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron has been named as the guest presenter for the draw, and will be joined on stage by a host of sporting celebrities including David Beckham, Haile Gebrselassie and Makhaya Ntini. Theron will assist the Fifa secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, during the draw.
The president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, and Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, will welcome the audience at the beginning of the draw. Other guests will include Issa Hayatou, the chairman of the World Cup's organising committee, the Nobel Peace Prize winners FW de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as the former footballers Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini, Eusébio and Roger Milla. Nelson Mandela will address the audience by video message.
A series of short films designed to "give a taste" of the upcoming tournament will be shown. There will also be a number of live music acts, including the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir, the Béninoise singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo and Johnny Clegg. The show will be brought to a close with a performance by the internationally acclaimed musical ensemble Africa Umoja, along with 80 performing artists.
Audience: More than 2,000 invited guests will be present along with more than 1,700 media representatives. Fifa has said it anticipates a TV audience of more than 200m across more than 200 countries and territories, which would represent a significant increase on the 134.5m who watched the draw for the 2006 World Cup.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/dec/02/world-cup-2010-draw-details
