England Head Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is confident England will be named as one of the seeds for the World Cup finals later today. Fifa's World Cup organising Committee are expected to announce at 1pm which six sides will join holders Brazil and hosts Germany as seeds for 2006.
England are ninth in the world but Sven said: "The world ranking is important but it is also what you did in the last two or three World Cups. I doubt very much the US and Mexico will be seeded before us."
England are one of the favourites to win the tournament but they face an anxious wait to see if they will be seeded and therefore ensure they will not be paired with any of the other seeds in the group stage.
But in the Fifa world rankings they trail Brazil as well as the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Argentina, France, Spain, Mexico and the USA.
However, if Fifa uses the same system as the last two finals England are likely to be included as a seed.
Whatever happens today, Eriksson is confident that his side can go all the way in Germany.
He added: "We asked Fifa if we would be seeded or not and what are the rules and they did not answer.
"I hope we are seeded because that will be very important. If we are not we cannot protest about it.
"We are one of five or six teams that can do it. The players are convinced, like I am, that we can win the World Cup.
"If we do not have any injuries and are not tired at the end of the Premier League season we have a good chance."
We will speak to Sven as soon as the seedings are announced, so stay with TheFA.com.