Excitement mounts as World Cup soccer finals come into focus

LEIPZIG, Dec. 09 -- Next year's World Cup finals in Germany will come sharply into focus today when the first round draw takes place live on television before a huge global audience.

The 32 finalists will be split into eight first round groups of four teams with the opening match on June 9 now just six months away.

The acting chairman of the Ghana Football Association(GFA), Kwasi Nyantakyi, said Ghana would welcome any group it finds itself in .

?We would welcome any group we are placed in. We are not dreaming about any possible group that would suit us. Playing at this level puts you up against tough opponents.

?Remember Cameroon beat Argentina and also at the last World Cup Senegal stunned the defending champions, France. It tells you anything can happen.?

Kwasi Nyantakyi and his general secretary, Kofi Nsiah, with other members of the football association will be joined in Leipzig by Black Stars coach, Ratomir Dujkovic for the draw.

The only certainty is that Germany will play in that game in Munich after being allocated slot A1 in the draw, while world champions Brazil will be allocated slot F1 and will open their campaign in Berlin on June 13.

Apart from that, the rest is conjecture.
Eight teams: Germany, Brazil, England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina and Italy have been seeded and will each be placed in one of the groups.
Ghana have been placed in Pool Two with other first timers- Australia, Angola, Ivory Coast, Togo- as well as Tunisia, Ecuador and Paraguay.
The draw takes place at the Neue Messe trade hall in front of nearly 4,000 invited guests, including 31 of the 32 national coaches, in a 90-minute ceremony starting at 2030 local time (1930 GMT). The draw itself will commence at around 2120 (2020 GMT).
The format for the finals will follow the formula used at the first 32-team finals in France eight years ago.
The eight seeds will be allocated to one of the eight four-team first round groups with the others added according to geographical criteria.
No more than two European teams will be in one group while teams from the CONCACAF, African, Asian and South American confederations will also be kept apart.
The draw will be televised live to 150 countries and an estimated global audience of around 350 million people.
A number of footballing personalities including Pele are expected to play their part in the draw with German supermodel Heidi Klum among the presenters.
The ceremony, during which the official match ball will also be unveiled, will be compered by FIFA's director of communications Markus Siegler.