Watch the draw for the 2010 World Cup live here on RTE.ie on Sunday. Republic of Ireland only.
The race for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will begin in earnest when the draw for the European qualifying campaign takes place on Sunday.
The Republic of Ireland are expected to be seeded third, alongside Northern Ireland, with England and Scotland in pot two.
UEFA have already announced that seeding for the European qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup will be based on FIFA's latest world rankings.
The draw will split the 53 European countries into eight groups of six teams, and one group of five.
The nine group-winners will qualify automatically and the best eight runners-up will go into home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places.
Sunday's draw starts at 3pm Irish time.
Asia's groups will be drawn first, followed by those in the CONCACAF region (north and central America and the Caribbean), then Europe and finally Africa.
There is no draw for South America and the Oceania region, who have already started their preliminary competition.
Expected World Cup draw seedings:
Pot one:
Italy, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Holland, Croatia, Greece
Pot two:
England, Romania, Scotland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland, Sweden, Israel
Pot three:
Norway, Ukraine, Serbia, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium
Pot four:
Slovakia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, Moldova, Wales, Macedonia, Belarus, Lithuania, Cyprus
Pot five:
Georgia, Albania, Slovenia, Latvia, Iceland, Armenia, Austria
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
Pot six:
Liechtenstein, Estonia, Malta, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Andorra, Faroe Islands, San Marino
