Nigeria may draw Argentina and Netherlands in the World Cup

With World Cup draws just four days away in South Africa, and FIFA yet to release the seeding procedures for qualifying countries, Nigeria football fans are wondering which group the Super Eagles will be drawn in and with which country - especially with the Super Eagles having missed out at the last edition in Germany in 2006, But for now, everything is just speculation.

If one is to guess on how the draws will go, then it will be safe to do so based on the processes used for the past few tournaments.

Two countries from one confederation

Since 1998 FIFA have used constraints for the draws to ensure that no more than two European teams are placed in the same group, and equally that no group contains more than one team from any other confederation, which means for instance that Nigeria and Cote D'voire cannot be grouped together.

The seedings have been calculated using a formula based on performances at previous World Cups as well as taking into account the FIFA World Rankings.

2006 criterion

The seedings for the 2006 World Cup were decided based on each nation's performance at the past two World Cups, as well as their FIFA World Rankings over the previous three years.

There will be eight seeded teams, if 2006 criterion is followed. South Africa is automatically seeded and placed in Group A, to ensure that they play the opening game, as hosts of the tournament.

The other seeds are the seven highest placed teams based on such criteria as performance at the last two World Cups as well as their FIFA World Rankings over the previous three years, with FIFA incorporating the November world ranking. These seven seeded teams will be Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain,

England, France, and Argentina, with South Africa, Pot 1 is completed.

Pot 2 will contain the remaining European teams, this is so that no group will contain more than two teams from Europe. Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia, Greece, Denmark, Serbia, Slovakia make up this pot.

Nigeria vs Argentina

Nigeria and the four other African qualifiers will be paired with the three qualifiers from the South American football federation to make a group of eight. Pot 3 will look like this: Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Ghana, Cameroon,

Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Algeria. For Nigeria, it is safe to say we will definitely get a team from Pot 1 -a tough prospect considering we have the likes of Argentina and Brazil, and Pot 2 definitely doesn't make things easier, since we might just draw Portugal or Netherlands. South Korea, Japan, Australia, North Korea, Mexico, USA, Honduras, and New Zealand will be in the fourth Pot.

The last World Cup the Super Eagles participated in - Japan/Korea 2002 - the Nigeria national team was drawn alongside: Argentina, England, and Sweden. The team did not progress beyond the first round.