Thursday, 17th October, 2013
England have a chance of facing next year's World Cup hosts Brazil in the group stage, among other powerhouses, after being unseeded for the tournament's main draw.
The Three Lions claimed back-to-back victories in their last two World Cup qualifying games, taking them up to 10th place from 17th in the latest FIFA rankings.
However, results elsewhere mean the top seven qualifiers will not feature Roy Hodgson's men – aside from hosts Brazil being seeded.
Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Colombia are seven of the seeds that could see England in their group.
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Uruguay are the potential eighth seed but they face an intercontinental playoff game against Jordan, and should they be beaten, it will be Holland who take the final seed spot.
France's attempts to engineer changes to the seeding method for the European playoff seeding came to nought yesterday, and they face a two-legged affair, the draw for which takes place next week.
In terms of the rankings, Spain have maintained their grip on first place, but Scotland have made further inroads by making the biggest move by points (164) from the previous edition.
They had the biggest climb the last time when moving to number 50, and they cut that by a further 15 to sit 35th this time.
Brazil, however, dropped out of the top 10 – having breached it last time – as they lost three places into 11th having not played any qualifying games for their home tournament.
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