Spain seeded as England miss out

England's worst fears were confirmed today when they were left unseeded for next year's World Cup finals.

Spain, who consistently under-perform in the finals, were given the last of the eight seeded places in Saturday's draw.

But arch-rivals Germany will be seeded despite England thrashing them 5-1 in Munich and going on to qualify as group winners.

The seeded teams, who will be kept apart in Saturday's draw, were announced here today following a three-hour meeting. Although, officially, nothing had been decided before the meeting, seven of the eight seeds were already widely known.

FIFA based their selection criteria on a country's record at the last three World Cups and world rankings over the last three years.

World champions France were selected as No1 seeds and will play in Korea. Japan and South Korea were also chosen to head groups as host nations. Germany were selected on their record in previous World Cups and the Spanish took the last spot ahead of England by virtue of their consistently high world rankings.