Finally we have the facts about the draw for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. The draw will take place in Leipzig's Neue Messe exhibition centre. The ceremony begins at 19.30 GMT on Friday, and the draw itself, which will split the 32 qualified teams into eight groups of four for the first phase of the finals, will take place from 20.20 to 20.50 GMT.

One of the stipulations of the draw will be that the eight groups will contain a maximum of two European teams, and no group will contain more than one team from any other confederation. This is to ensure that each group has an interest from all around the globe.

- That rule has complicated the pre-draw groupings. On Tuesday, the teams were split into three pots of eight, one special pot containing just Serbia & Montenegro and one pot of seven.

- The groupings in each pot are as follows:

Pot 1 (seeded teams): Germany (hosts), Brazil (champions), England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina & Italy.

Pot 2 (Africa, South America and Oceania): Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Tunisia, Ecuador, Paraguay & Australia.

Pot 3 (Europe): Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine

Pot 4 (Asia, North, Central America and the Caribbean): Iran, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, United States, Trinidad & Tobago

Special pot (lowest ranked European team): Serbia & Montenegro

- To make sure there cannot be three European teams in one group, Serbia & Montenegro will be drawn in the same group as one of the non-European teams from pot 1, i.e. Brazil, Argentina or Mexico. - The seeds will automatically be placed in position 1 in their respective groups.

However, after each team has been drawn from the other pots, a second draw will take place to decide the position of the team within the group.

Germany, as hosts, will be placed in A1, while Brazil, as defending champions, will be F1. That guarantees the two teams will play their first round matches at the biggest venues.

- The top two finishers in each group will go through to the last 16, and the knock-out phase.

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