New boss will face familiar tormentors

World Cup qualifying Group 6:Steve McClaren's successor will have to overcome the all-too-familiar and the utterly unknown if he is to restore the national game's self-respect by steering England to the finals of the 2010 World Cup.

The preliminary draw for the tournament here yesterday saw England paired with Croatia, architects of the Football Association's current misery, and facing potentially cheerless trips to Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Of the five teams joining England in Group Six even the whipping-boys Andorra will revive nightmares from the failed campaign to reach Euro 2008.

The FA chief executive, Brian Barwick, will board a plane home from South Africa today knowing the search for a new coach, which starts in earnest this week, just got harder. Barwick insists that he has not approached any potential candidates or their representatives, and will sit down with the FA director of football development, Trevor Brooking, to discuss the qualities required in the new man.

"I go back early next week and then I really genuinely turn my attention to that," Barwick said. "Whether people rule themselves in or out, I'm determined to get the right person. I've already spoken to Trevor Brooking, who I want very much alongside me on this and I intend to sit down with him this week and we will get on with appointing the coach."

Barwick refused to put a timescale on the appointment process but insisted the draw presented McClaren's successor with an opportunity rather than a millstone. "It's an opportunity for the new coach, when he's with us, to see if he can turn round our fortunes against a very good team," he said.

Among the new coach's attributes should be a love of travel. Kazakhstan is known best in connection with Sacha Baron Cohen's satirical creation Borat, but the reality of a eight-hour flight to Almaty in the Eurasian steppes at Europe's eastern extreme, where temperatures yesterday reached -11C, may be less than cheerful.

Ukraine and Belarus will pose a formidable challenge, too, with familiar faces in the shape of the Chelsea striker Andrei Shevchenko and Arsenal's Alexander Hleb capable of conjuring embarrassment.

The scheduling of winter fixtures is likely to be a crucial factor in a group in which only the winners are guaranteed to progress to the finals. The six federations will meet in Zagreb to thrash out the schedule before Christmas. Ukraine and Croatia both offered to host the fixtures meeting and the venue was decided by the toss of a South African coin provided by the English FA. Kazakhstan were not even represented at the draw, with the Uefa general secretary, David Taylor, representing them for protocol purposes.

Croatia's emergence from the final pot of seeded teams alongside England drew gasps and applause from the 3,000-strong audience inside Durban's convention centre last night, but judging from Barwick's reaction it is unlikely that the FA joined in. "It didn't surprise me in a way because that's how these things sometimes work out," he said.

"When their name came out you think, we've got to get on with it. It's an opportunity at competitive level to pit our wits against a team that did us twice in European qualification."

Slaven Bilic's side humiliated England in Zagreb last October and again at Wembley last week and whoever takes charge of the qualifying campaign next autumn will have to find a way of countering the technical ability and commitment of his gifted side.

For all the trepidation in the England camp, Bilic was disappointed with the draw. "Oh no, not England," he said. "Everyone in Croatia was saying give us England again but I wanted to avoid them. It's a very, very hard draw because they are by far the best team in the second pot."