Seeding blow for England

England are set to miss out on being one of the top seeds for the Euro 2004 finals - meaning they could be drawn with holders France or hosts Portugal in the group stage.

UEFA will not confirm the seedings until after the play-offs have taken place but the tournament's regulations specify that they should be worked out on countries' records in qualifying for Euro 2004 and the 2002 World Cup.

That means that France and Portugal are automatically included as top seeds, and the other two countries with the best records from the qualifying campaigns are, surprisingly, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Italy, Spain and England have identical qualification records and they would be joined by Turkey as the four second seeds - assuming Spain and Turkey win their play-offs against Norway and Latvia respectively.

It also means England and Turkey would be kept apart in the group stage - something which would no doubt be welcomed from a security point of view.

A strong pot of third seeds could include Germany, Holland, Croatia and Russia while if they succeed in their play-offs both Scotland and Wales would be among the fourth and bottom group.

The draw takes place in Lisbon on November 30 and will divide the 16 qualifiers into four groups of four teams, each containing a top seed, second seed, third seed and fourth seed.

The results will be intriguing. There is the possibility of Sven-Goran Eriksson's side ending up in a 'group of death', such as France, England, Spain and Switzerland, or even perhaps a 'group of life' - Sweden, England, Croatia and Greece.