The draw for the 2006 football World Cup was held in Leipzig Germany on December 9th 2005. This is the greatest sporting event on earth after the Olympic games and has been eagerly looked forward to. The 32 teams were allocated into 8 groups of four in a televised ceremony that was watched live in over one hundred and sixty countries. The top two teams in each group will progress to the straight knockout stages.

The first team drawn from the balls was England, could that be an omen, could they possibly end the tournament finishing first? Fifa had controversially seeded them second, due in part to their recent thrilling injury time win over the old foe, Argentina.

Group A consists of Germany, Costa Rica, Poland & Ecuador

Group B consists of England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, & Sweden

Group C consists of Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro, & Holland

Group D consists of Mexico, Iran, Angola, & Portugal

Group E consists of Italy, Ghana, the USA, & the Czech Republic

Group F consists of Brazil, Croatia, Australia & Japan

Group G consists of France, Switzerland, South Korea, & Togo

Group H consists of Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, & Saudi Arabia

The matches kick off in Munich on June 9th and will last a month, the final being played on July 9th in Berlin.

While it is easy to look at the groups and pick the likely two qualifiers, we all know that is not how it will turn out. Memories are fresh of the failure of the holders France to progress from the group stage in 2002, dumped out after barely scoring a goal by the likes of Senegal.

The odds makers were quick to cut England