Wednesday, 4th December, 2013
French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet has welcomed FIFA's move to allow one unseeded team the lottery chance of being moved ahead of Friday's World Cup draw.
The nine unseeded European nations, including England and Holland, are in Pot 4 for Friday's draw, but one will be drawn at random to be moved to Pot 2, which contains the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, and Ecuador.
The alternative would have entailed picking the team in Pot 4 with the worst FIFA ranking – France in this case – and it would have meant potentially facing one of the European giants in that pot.
Pot 4 includes 2006 champions Italy as well as Portugal, Croatia, Russia, Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina
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And Le Graet was quoted by L'Equipe as saying: "I think it is the right formula because, compared to other European nations, we played two qualifying matches less, since we were in a group of five, which impacted our FIFA ranking.
"It did not surprise me because we knew that the two [methods] should be discussed. As you know, I've always been sympathetic with the decisions of FIFA.
"This decision seems fair, but is it good for us? We'll know on Friday after the draw."
Pot 1, meanwhile, contains hosts Brazil as well as Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, and Uruguay. The hosts are automatically put in Group A.
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