LEIPZIG, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Hosts Germany and defending champions Brazil were named among the top eight seeds for the World Cup finals as expected on Tuesday, along with England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina and Italy.

FIFA decided the rest of the draw, which takes place on Friday, would group teams in pots according to their geographical locations rather than their current world ranking or previous World Cup performances.

The second pot will contain Australia, the five African finalists: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Angola and Togo, plus the two lower ranked South American teams Ecuador and Paraguay.

The third pot will comprise eight European teams: Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.

The fourth pot will comprise four Asian teams: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the three remaining from CONCACAF Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.

A special pot will contain only Serbia & Montenegro, the lowest ranked European team, who will be placed in a group including either Brazil, Argentina or Mexico.

FIFA created the special pot so they could avoid having any groups with more than two European teams.

Jim Brown, FIFA’s Director of Competitions explained: “The seedings were based on FIFA rankings for the last three years and the last two World Cup finals.

“Germany will be seeded in slot A1 in the draw and Brazil in F1, and there were economic factors involved in this decision as those teams are guaranteed to play in larger stadiums.”

One team from each pot will be drawn into the eight groups in the first stage of the finals in Germany which run from June 9 to July 9.

Players selected for the 2006 World Cup will not be allowed to play for their clubs after May 15, FIFA announced in a surprise move on Tuesday.

The cut-off date has been introduced to give players time to recover before the start of the 2006 World Cup.

The one exception to the deadline will be the European Champions League final, which has been moved forward by a week to May 17.

That means the final in Paris, which will doubtless feature many players from the qualified teams, still misses the deadline but only by two days.

“The 23 players on the list (for each of the 32 participating nations) will not be available for any other competition (after this date),” FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi said on Tuesday.

“We don’t want burned out players. They will be free from any other engagement.

“The Champions League final is a special exception,” he said.—Reuters