ZURICH: France will be among the top seeds for next month’s World Cup draw after they climbed to seventh in the FIFA rankings published on Monday.

The draw for next year’s finals will be held in Moscow on December 1 when the 32 teams will be divided into four pots according to their position in the rankings.

The seven top-ranked sides plus hosts Russia go into in pot one, the next eight ranked teams will be in pot two and so on.

Each of the eight four-team first-round groups will consist of one team drawn from each pot.

The top seven teams on Monday were Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland and France – all among the 23 teams who have guaranteed their places in Russia.

FIFA uses October rankings to decide all four seeding pots despite nine places to be decided in November.

Spain will be in pot two, where they will be joined by England, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay. Peru, Switzerland and Italy, who all face playoffs in November, will also go into pot two if they qualify.

Peru, who face New Zealand in November as they attempt to end a 36-year absence from the World Cup, climbed into the top 10 for the first time.

New Zealand are 122nd, the lowest of any team still in contention for a place in Russia. South American champions Chile, ninth, were the highest-ranked team to fail to qualify.

The rankings also confirmed that Italy will be one of the four seeded teams in the draw for the European play-offs.

Switzerland, Croatia and Denmark will be the other seeded teams for the two-legged ties which will be played next month thanks to their positions in the rankings.

The unseeded sides for the draw, which will take place on Tuesday, will be Northern Ireland, Sweden, the Republic of Ireland and Greece.

At 65th, Russia are the lowest placed of the teams who have qualified so far although they have only played friendlies since Euro 2016 which earn fewer points under the complex ranking system, further diminishing expectations of their chances on home soil next year.

Iceland, who became the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup when they won their European group last week, will either be in pot two or three depending on who else qualifies. Panama, the other debutants, will be in pot four.

Nigeria and Serbia could also end up in pot four, depending who goes through from the playoffs.

Mexico at 16th head CONCACAF teams while the eliminated United States are 27th. Tunisia at 28th are Africa’s best, and 34th-ranked Iran lead Asia.

Latest FIFA rankings (top 20 as of October 16): 1. Germany, 2. Brazil, 3. Portugal, 4. Argentina, 5. Belgium, 6. Poland, 7. France, 8. Spain , 9. Chile, 10. Peru, 11. Switzerland, 12. England, 13. Colombia, 14. Wales, 15. Italy, 16. Mexico, 17. Uruguay, 18. Croatia, 19. Denmark, 20. Netherlands.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2017