Qantas Socceroos top seeds for FIFA World Cup qualifying

The Qantas Socceroos will be the top seeds going into the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Fourth Round draw after being named the highest ranked men’s team in Asia following Wednesday's special release of the FIFA World Rankings.

The Qantas Socceroos will be the top seeds going into the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Fourth Round draw after being named the highest ranked men-s team in Asia following Wednesday's special release of the FIFA World Rankings.

Currently sitting on 868 points, following their recent 4-2 victory over Saudi Arabia in Melbourne, the Qantas Socceroos are followed by the Korea Republic who have jumped into second position on 751 points after their 2-0 win over Kuwait.

Japan has dropped to third place in Asia due to their 1-0 loss to Uzbekistan at home. The only other change to the FIFA World Ranking order from the previous release is that Qatar has overtaken Oman.

The 10 Asian teams that have qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Fourth Round will be divided into five pots according to their rankings as determined by the latest FIFA World Rankings, with the top two teams in Asia placed into Pot 1, the teams ranked 3 & 4 into Pot 2 and so forth.

The final pot allocation will see the Qantas Socceroos and the Korea Republic placed in Pot 1, Japan and Iran in Pot 2, Uzbekistan and Iraq in Pot 3, Jordan and Qatar in Pot 4, and Oman and Lebanon in Pot 5.

The draw procedure will begin with Pot 2, the pot containing Japan. The first ball drawn out of Pot 2 will be placed into A2 and the second ball drawn will be placed into B2. However, if Japan are drawn first, they will take position A5 or B5 if drawn second to allow for them to participate at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, which will be held from 16-30 June 2013.

The next stage will see the balls from Pot 5 drawn with the first ball drawn from Pot 5 placed in the lowest position of Group A. The second ball drawn from Pot 5 will be placed in the lowest available position in Group B. The same procedure will then be applied for Pot 4, Pot 3 and Pot 1 respectively.

The first match day of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Fourth Round will be on 3 June 2012, with the final match day on 18 June 2013. The top two teams from each group will progress directly to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The two third-placed teams from each group will meet in a play-off over two match days (6 & 10 September 2013) with the winner over two legs to face the a CONMEBOL team on 15 October 2013 and 19 November 2013, with the winner of that fixture over two legs progressing to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Fourth Round will be made at 4pm MST (7pm AEDT) on Friday 9 March 2012 at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (4:00pm local, 7:00pm AEDT) and will be broadcast Live and Exclusive on Fox Sports News in Australia.

FIFA World Rankings of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Fourth Round teams (7 Mar 2012)

20 Australia 30 Korea Republic 33 Japan 51 Iran 67 Uzbekistan 76 Iraq 83 Jordan 88 Qatar 92 Oman 124 Lebanon

For more information, please visit www.fifa.com or www.the-afc.com