Soccer: It's all now up to the luck of the draw

Let the games begin, and they will, even before a ball is kicked in South Africa.

Controversy is always at hand, so to speak, in the wake of the Thierry Henry scandal, when talk turns to World Cup football.

Even the just-completed qualification playoffs were hit by continuing criticism over the late decision to introduce seedings.

Conspiracy theorists claimed it was aimed at giving the favoured few a softer ride and specifically to get Portugal's world superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to South Africa.

Let's be real, though. Who can blame Fifa for wanting Ronaldo there? Soccer fans the world over will be rejoicing that Portugal have made the 32-team finals. And what's the point of having world seedings if you don't use them?

The formula for the finals draw, to be made in Cape Town on December 4, affects the chances for many sides. It will be decided on just two days before the draw, Fifa has announced.

One of the primary aims, under Fifa's rules, is to keep teams from the same confederation apart. Europe's strength prevents that but the system will limit the number of European teams in any group to two.

The common prediction is that Fifa will stick to a system where four selection pots are formed using rankings over the past three years and performances at the last two world cups as the guide.

So what are the All Whites' chance of getting a soft draw?

Whisper this quietly, for fear of being overwhelmed by the laughter, but a favourable draw allowing the over-matched New Zealanders to dream of making the knockout stage is possible. If things don't go their way however, they will face crushing defeats.

Under the best scenario, New Zealand would end up in a group with South Africa and the likes of Slovenia and North Korea. The All Whites are capable of good results against all three, but Fifa is unlikely to allow a system producing such a weak grouping and will prevent us being matched against the Koreans.

Bad luck might plonk the All Whites into a pool with, say, Brazil, Holland, and the Ivory Coast. Ouch.

Some people, although certainly not captain Ryan Nelsen, have taken a defeatist attitude, and actually want the All Whites to be drawn against glamorous opponents.

For those in the Nelsen camp, the problem for New Zealand's chances is that all the comparatively weaker sides - bar South Africa - are likely to end up in their pot.

The initial stage of the World Cup finals, which kicks off at the re-built 95,000-capacity Soccer City Stadium in Soweto on June 12, will involve eight groups of four teams, with the top two from each advancing to the last 16.

Fifa arranges the draw by having four "pots" of eight teams, with one team from each pot going into each group.

Group A is the dream selection for any team because it includes hosts South Africa, who have been given a thoroughly undeserved seeding.

The pots are predicted to be made up along these lines:

Pot 1: South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Netherlands or France, Italy, Germany, England.

Pot 2: Netherlands or France, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia.

Pot 3: Cameroon, Chile, Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Uruguay, Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana.

Pot 4: United States, Mexico, Australia, Honduras, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, North Korea.

There have been many different systems and types of draw ceremonies over the years.

In 1938 the grandson of Fifa overlord Jules Rimet pulled the names out of le hat in a glamorous room in the French Foreign Ministry.

Moving forward, the World Cup draws were held in television studios, convention centres and stadiums.

A famous incident happened in 1974, when West Germany were the hosts.

A choirboy drew the names and produced a cheeky result, putting political opponents West and East Germany into the same group.

Football legends such as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, plus international superstars like Sophia Loren and Heidi Klum, are often on hand to witness a procedure that is a sort of lottery draw meets Eurovision song contest.

The 1966 tournament in England saw the first live television coverage of the draw, but it really took off for the 1998 tournament in France when nearly 40,000 people with nothing better to do packed a stadium for the occasion, with hundreds of millions of television viewers also looking on.

And so, over to you, Cape Town. Early prediction: a World Cup song will be sung and there will be a so-called group of death.