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DURBAN (South Africa) - ENGLAND'S decline as an international football power was further underlined on Friday when they missed out on a seeding for the preliminary qualifying draw for the 2010 World Cup.
After falling to 12th in the Fifa rankings over their failure to qualify for the finals of Euro 2008, England now face the possibility of facing Italy, France or Germany when the World Cup draw takes place here on Sunday.
Nine other European teams are now ranked ahead of England, meaning the 1966 winners will just miss out on one of the seedings for the nine groups.
Until Wednesday's home defeat against Croatia, England had been in a seeding position but they have now been leap-frogged by Greece.
Fifty-three European teams will be competing for 13 of the 32 places up for grabs at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Under the Fifa rankings which were released in Durban on Friday, the nine European seeds for the preliminary draw will be: Italy, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Croatia and Greece.
The nine second-ranked teams are England, Romania, Scotland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland, Sweden and Israel.
There will be eight groups of six teams and one group of five.
The nine group winners will automatically qualify while the eight best runners-up will compete in a home and away play-offs, the four winners of which will also qualify for the finals. -- AFP
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