Ghana will most likely be placed in the fourth tier and can expect two strong nations of the calibre of Brazil and Holland to be placed in its group for the World Cup finals next year.

FIFA will split the 32 qualifiers into four different gradings from strongest to weakest. The top grading ? Tier 1 ? will become the seeded countries to head each of the eight groups. The draw will then involve four different urns with eight teams in each urn and a name from each urn pulled out to make up each of the eight groups.

Ghana will almost certainly be placed in the lowest tier alongside the smaller soccer nations such as Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Angola.

The draw will be a lavish celebration televised to 150 countries on December 9 and the seedings won't be known until two days earlier.

The politics that take place behind the scenes at FIFA will have a bearing on the decisions on who goes into which urn but this is how it could look:

Tier 1: Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, England

Tier 2: Czech Republic, Holland, Poland, Paraguay, Sweden, Croatia, Mexico, USA.

Tier 3: Ecuador, South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Serbia & Montenegro, Ukraine, Tunisia, Costa Rica.

Tier 4: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Angola, Togo, Trinidad.

The draw for the final phase will be covered by 150 television and radio stations across 145 countries and is expected to attract a world-wide viewing audience of 320 million.

The draw will take 30 minutes but FIFA is setting up 120 commentary positions in the hall and has accredited 850 broadcast journalists from 55 countries to cover the event.

As well as the major German networks, broadcasters such as RAI (Italy), BBC (England), TV Globo (Brazil), ABC and ESPN (USA), Televisa (Mexico) and TF1 (France) will all be present.

The print media will consist of 800 journalists and photographers, 600 of them from outside Germany. To conduct the draw, FIFA has nominated at least one star player from each of the football continents.

The draw will be part of a gala evening which will combine the serious soccer side with entertainment ranging from singers to a short film commissioned for the occasion.

A rock star from Colombia, Juanes, will headline the musical acts and a German dubbed the fastest magician in the world will keep the television audience entertained.

Appointments, meetings, press conferences, the official FIFA banquet, a media party with the theme "A time to make friends in Leipzig" . . . all these are in store for guests of the final draw in the week from December 5-9.

The FIFA executive committee will meet in Leipzig on December 6 and publish the procedure after a meeting with the 2006 Organising Committee which is chaired by UEFA president Lennart Johansson.

FIFA will be flying in 4000 guests including the coaches of all 32 finalists.