England will not be World Cup seed

England's failure to qualify as one of eight
seeded teams for the 2014 World Cup has
been confirmed with the release of the
latest Fifa rankings.
Hosts Brazil and the top seven ranked
qualifiers will be kept apart in the group stages
of next year's tournament.
England, who climb from 17th to 10th spot,
will be in a European pot.
"It's pretty unnecessary to worry too much
about whether we are the first or second out
of the hat [on 6 December]," said England
manger Roy Hodgson.
Each of the eight seeds will be assigned a
group in the World Cup finals draw.
Those groups will be completed by teams from
three different geographical regions.
England will have to face one of Brazil, Spain,
Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium,
Colombia and probably Uruguay.
Uruguay's place in Brazil depends on them
winning a play-off against Jordan next month.
If they are beaten in the two-legged tie, the
Netherlands will take the final seed ahead of
Italy.
The rankings' emphasis on recent results
rather than teams' record in major
tournaments means 2010 World Cup runners-
up Netherlands and 2006 winners Italy miss
out on being kept apart from the other
traditional powerhouses of world football.
As fellow European nations, however, they
would be kept apart from England.
France coach Didier Deschamps, whose side
have to win a two-legged play-off to make the
finals after being beaten by Spain in their
qualifying group, has criticised the system.
"From my point of view it's not very logical,''
said the former Chelsea midfielder.
He added that it was a "double punishment"
that his side were in Group I, the only
European one with five rather than six teams,
meaning they had two fewer matches to earn
ranking points.
As well as a seed and a nation from the
European group, each of the World Cup groups
will also contain a team from a combined Asia,
Oceania and North and Central America pot
and one of the lower-ranked African and South
American qualifiers or the lowest-ranked
European qualifier.
Spain remain at the top of the rankings, ahead
of Germany who leapfrog Argentina to take
second spot.
Scotland have climbed 28 places to 35th in the
world after beating Croatia and Macedonia in
the final two games of their unsuccessful
qualification campaign.
Wales are up seven places to 45th in the wake
of their 1-1 draw with Belgium, while
Northern Ireland climb four places to 90th
following their 1-1 draw away to Israel.