With the draw about to take place in South Africa, we're getting to the stage where the World Cup (and England's involvement in particular) will be mentioned almost daily on the news. Every reference to North Korea will be followed by the mandatory "who last qualified for the World Cup in 1966. And we know what happened then!"

I can exclusively reveal that the draw has actually been made in private and England's group will be:

England

New Zealand

Greenland

Isle of Man

OK so I'm bitter that England always get easy draws and Scotland aren't there. Although I'm not sure if there's a single team in the draw that I'd expect (Burley's) Scotland to beat.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia

If we got - South Africa, North Korea and Algeria I would be confident we would qualify for the next round.

I wouldn't. Most of those teams would beat Scotland, probably fairly comfortably.

I wouldn't. Most of those teams would beat Scotland, probably fairly comfortably.

I think we could sneak a 0-0 against New Zealand.

There could be a couple of cracking groups in there. For example:

Pot 1 - Anyone

Pot 2 - USA/Mexico/Australia

Pot 3 - Ivory Coast/Uruguay/Paraguay

Pot 4 - Portugal/France

Although it is a shame that the US and North Korea can't be drawn against each other.

Scotland need to apply for the 33rd place in the world cup ahead of Ireland... never mind a handball, we were unfairly disadvantaged with Kris Commons claiming to be an international class footballer :icon_police:

If we got - South Africa, North Korea and Algeria I would be confident we would qualify for the next round.

Aaaah, it's sweet and touching, the naivete of youth......

You weren't alive in 78 (insert self-destruct smiley here).

Edited December 4, 200916 yr by The Mantis

Whilst channel surfing last night I'm sure I saw a B&W add with Ian Wright & Terry Veneables bigging up team Ingerland. 6 months more of the hype to endure ;)

I have put a bet on this being englands group,

england

Switzerland

Algeria

New Zealand

250/1 with Bet Fred

Engerland Engerland Engerland, Engerland Engerland Engerlaaaaannnnnddddd.

Just thought I'd start practicing early. ;)

England

USA

Ghana

France

Now that would be 0 points out of 9 for England. I really doubt England will beat USA. as a matter of fact, im going to put ?10 on America winning this thing

Beckham told Charlize Theron yesterday that England want Switzerland from pot 4.

There is always a nervousness about the world cup until england invevitably go out on pens and then I can sit back and actually enjoy it.

England, USA, Ivory Coast and France/Portugal please to get them out in the group stages

Oh well looks like I will have to buy USA, Algeria and Slovenia tops then

Does any other team have an easier group? Spain or Italy perhaps.

Lineker and co have already worked out who they will play in next round, 1/4's and semi's with Argentina in final.

hot balls me thinks. jammy gits as per usual

Oh well looks like I will have to buy USA, Algeria and Slovenia tops then

You could save yourself money and buy "Im supporting all teams that play Engalnd at the 2010 World Cup"

on the back could say "And im damn proud of it!"

hehe

Edited December 4, 200916 yr by caleykid1994

Does any other team have an easier group? Spain or Italy perhaps.

Both of those groups are easier than England's. There is every chance they could finish 2nd before going out to Germany on penalties in Round 2.

Utter farce of a " draw " , set up for the big boys to progress and keep the tv companies happy .

Utter farce of a " draw " , set up for the big boys to progress and keep the tv companies happy .

That's life. I think that the rest of the teams in group C will fancy their chances.

Utter farce of a " draw " , set up for the big boys to progress and keep the tv companies happy .

The TV companies are happy when a lot of people watch the games. If the TV companies are happy then that suggests the fans are happy too. With 2 going through from each group there is plenty of opportunity for the less fancied teams to progress.

Bougherra is Algerian isn't he? Karim Kerkar (ex Clyde and Dundee Utd), definitely is but I'm not sure if he's still in the national team.

Well just before I was called away for my tea, I was going to post something generous about England's chances, wish them well, hoping that they could play some good stuff and entertain and so on (OK I would have to stop short of hoping they actually won, you understand, but nice to keep in with Oz, Guzz, Yompa and all the rest).

However after seeing the 6 o'clock news when we got the newsreader saying breathlessly 'well the World Cup draw is taking place as we speak, so let's go over to (insert name here) to find out about England's chances', I started to hae ma doots.

We then got about 5 minutes of Group C while I wondered when they'd get on with mentioning one or two of the other 28 teams, which, of course, never happened, but they did say we could find the rest of the draw on their website. And we've already had Capello being asked on behalf of the good old BBC 'can WE win?'

Give me a wee nation to support (actually I love Slovenia - it's a wonderful wee place just like Scotland).

Is that so hard to understand? England are like Rangers - all the resources, they're an absolute giant, but put them up against similar nations like Germany and Italy, or even Netherlands, and they punch BELOW their weight. Of course both also have travelling supporters whose attitude to foreign culture is a bit like that of Genghis Khan :011:

full draw for those who havent seen it ...... I am going for Nigeria myself as that is my wife's family ancestry and neither Scotland or Canada qualified

Wiki has some crappy unbelievable info in many categories but the World Cup page looks pretty good ! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup

Well just before I was called away for my tea, I was going to post something generous about England's chances, wish them well, hoping that they could play some good stuff and entertain and so on (OK I would have to stop short of hoping they actually won, you understand, but nice to keep in with Oz, Guzz, Yompa and all the rest).

However after seeing the 6 o'clock news when we got the newsreader saying breathlessly 'well the World Cup draw is taking place as we speak, so let's go over to (insert name here) to find out about England's chances', I started to hae ma doots.

We then got about 5 minutes of Group C while I wondered when they'd get on with mentioning one or two of the other 28 teams, which, of course, never happened, but they did say we could find the rest of the draw on their website. And we've already had Capello being asked on behalf of the good old BBC 'can WE win?'

Give me a wee nation to support (actually I love Slovenia - it's a wonderful wee place just like Scotland).

Is that so hard to understand? England are like Rangers - all the resources, they're an absolute giant, but put them up against similar nations like Germany and Italy, or even Netherlands, and they punch BELOW their weight. Of course both also have travelling supporters whose attitude to foreign culture is a bit like that of Genghis Khan :011:

I refuse to take the bait with 6 months or so to go before it all kicks off. I'm sure by the time it does I will have had lots of "discussions" with you and the other Algeria/Slovenia/America supporters. :P

I've got nothing against the England players and have always had a lot of respect for Capello.

If it wasn't for the entire English media I would be quite happy to see them win it.

Knowing how these c*nnts would react if that happened, I'll be quite happy to see them lose all their Round 1 games and be the first team to fly out of SA.

I'll even buy the Sun if that happens.... :011: