Third group place for Ireland

The Republic of Ireland, as anticipated, will be included among the third flight of countries when the draw for the preliminary phase of the 2002 World Cup takes place in Tokyo's International Forum tomorrow.

As usual, the seedings have been based on results in the last two major championships and Ireland, involved in play-offs for both France '98 and Euro 2000 without winning either, are currently rated 20th in FIFA's international ranking.

That ensured that they would go into the third band of countries in the Tokyo draw, alongside Croatia, Slovakia, Israel, Bulgaria, Greece, Switzerland, Poland and Lithuania.

Ireland were also among the third-seeded nations in the qualifying rounds for the Euro 2000 championship and yet progressed sufficiently well to come close to topping their group.

"The moral of that story is that there has been such a levelling up in standards that, on any given day, there is precious little between the established European footballing countries," said Mick McCarthy.

"Theoretically, it means that there will be two better teams in the group than us but I don't see that weighing too heavily on the players' minds when the action starts."

For a country that finished third in the World Cup in France, Croatia's decline has been quite rapid but Mick McCarthy will still be grateful that he doesn't have to compete with them for a place in the finals.

Poland too, are a formidable power and, as they showed on occasions in each of the last two major championships, are capable of troubling even the best when they start to harness their considerable resources.

There will be be no repeat of the England-Scotland European Championship play-off following the placing of both countries in the second flight of countries. Despite the play-off result, Scotland, in 14th place, are currently three places higher than Kevin Keegan's team in FIFA's latest rankings list.

That, of course, will be scant consolation for those Scots who had hoped to watch their team in action in the finals in Belgium and Holland next summer but it will reinforce manager Craig Brown in his belief that Scotland are capable of making the cut for the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea.

For Italy, there is the relatively novel experience of being included among the second seeds but the buoyancy of Scandinavian football is reflected in the inclusion of Sweden and Norway among the nine top-ranked countries.

Predictably, Germany, Holland, Spain and the Czech Republic also come into this category and there is just recognition for Yugoslavia who have been involved in two mighty struggles with Ireland in the last 13 months. Wales are included in the fourth flight of countries with Northern Ireland, 41st in the rankings, in the bottom group.

The European qualifying section will be staged in five groups of six teams and four of five teams. The winners of each group automatically go through to join the holders, France in the finals. The nine runners-up will be joined by the team finishing third in the Asian section in two legged play-offs to establish another five finalists.