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England's failure to qualify for the European Championships has already left them counting the cost for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after Fifa announced this morning that they will not be among the top seeds for Sunday's qualifying draw.
As England's black week continues following the disastrous 3-2 Wembley defeat to Croatia, the national side has also fallen to 12th in the latest world rankings, below Greece.
The drop comes despite England gaining some ranking points from their victory over Austria last week, but since it was a friendly, the points gained were far fewer than those won by Greece, who enjoyed two wins in European qualifying matches within the last week.

Scotland have dropped one place to 14th, meaning they will also be in the group of second seeds.
Northern Ireland have risen four places to 32nd in the world and have overtaken the Republic of Ireland, who drop three places to 35th. Wales's ranking remains unchanged in 58th spot.
Argentina remain the No 1 country in the world despite their 2-1 defeat by Colombia, but Brazil and Italy have closed the gap. Spain have risen two places to fourth and the Czech Republic three places to sixth.
Big moves include South Africa up 25 places to 77th and Belarus, whose 2-1 win over Holland in midweek sees them rise 34 places to 60th.
Fifa world rankings:
1 Argentina 1523pts (0 position change), 2 Brazil 1502 (0), 3 Italy 1498 (0), 4 Spain 1349 (+2), 5 Germany 1296 (0), 6 Czech Republic 1290 (+3), 7 France 1243 (-3 ), 8 Portugal 1241 (0), 9 Holland 1170 (-2), 10 Croatia 1129 (0), 11 Greece 1114 (+3), 12 England 1113 (-1), 13 Romania 1088 (-1), 14 Scotland 990 (-10), 15 Mexico 985 (0). Others: 32 Northern Ireland 780 (+4); 35 Republic of Ireland 731 (-3); 58 Wales 560 (0).
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Why should we be scared that we are not seeded? OK We may have played poorly and been managed poorly in recent months but theres nothing like humiliating failure to strengthen the resolve? Ok we have to work harder but will one of the seeded teams be pleased to see us pop up in their group like the ghost of christmas past? I bet the seede countries would like to see us seeded as well! We may be inconsistent and ok technically deficient compared to some if people insist but no team will be comfortable against us when we are in the correct frame of mind which we definately were not the other night? I remember German players cockily telling their press how they were going to beat us before the 5-1 shock. I bet Germany felt like we do now. They recovered and may well win euro2008?
Jon W, Sheffield, S Yorks