FALCONS UNSEEDED, AS FIFA HOLDS DRAW

By NBF News

Nkwocha Perpetua of Nigeria(4) celebrates with teammates

Africa champions, Nigeria's Super Falcons, are not seeded by FIFA ahead of the draw for next year's World Cup in Germany. Champions of other continents have been seeded by FIFA but Africa has been left out.

Falcons are in pot three alongside fellow Africa qualifier, Equatorial Guinea, and as there are every possibility that either of them would be playing in group D where Brazil is holding forth as the seeded team from South America

The United States (US) is one of the four seeded teams for the women's World Cup despite being the last nation to qualify for the next year's tournament in Germany.

Host and defending champion, Germany, is the top-seeded team in Group A. It will kick off the tournament against an opponent to be determined at Monday's draw in Frankfurt. Japan heads Group B, the U.S. tops Group C and Brazil will be the top-seeded team in Group D.

The Americans, champions in 1991 and 1999, qualified with a 1-0 victory on Saturday over Italy, winning the home-and-home playoff 2-0.

The World Cup will be played from June 26 to July 17 in Germany.

The draw starts with pot 1, Germany, as the host, will be seeded in Group A.

Japan, as the best-ranked team from the AFC, will be seeded in Group B, while USA, as the best-ranked team from CONCACAF, will be seeded in Group C,

Brazil, as the best-ranked team from CONMEBOL, will be seeded in Group D

Their positions in the groups will be A1 Germany, B1 Japan, C1 USA, D1 Brazil.

Principle adopted by FIFA in the draw states that no second team from the same confederation can be in the same group.

But as it stands from the pots, Colombia may not be drawn in Group D, which already has a CONMEBOL team, Brazil.

The first non-CONMEBOL team (Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, New Zealand) must go in Group D with the seeded team from CONMEBOL (Brazil), unless Colombia is drawn as the first team, then it proceeds as normal from left to right.