FIFA today announced the structure for this Saturday's World Cup draw which will see teams selected from four different pots and placed in eight groups.
The first pot contains the seeded teams of reigning champions France, hosts Japan and South Korea plus Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Spain.
The Republic of Ireland are in the second pot which contains the remaining European respresentatives.
The third pot contains only five sides (Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, China, Saudi Arabia) while the final pot holds the five African teams plus Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States.
The committee also confirmed that China would play their first round matches in South Korea.
The draw, scheduled to take place in Pusan South Korea on Saturday starting at 1000 (Irish time) will have two built-in safeguards.
The first means that no more than two European teams will play in the same group and that, for example, all the South American teams will not be based in either Japan or South Korea - they will be evenly spread between the two.
FIFA general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen also said that teams that met in the qualifying competition could meet each other in the finals.
This means a worse case scenario could see Mick McCarthy's men pitted against one of the non-European top seeds like Brazil or Argentina and also one of the remaining strong European sides like Portugal or England.
"The draw is open, apart from the restrictions we have described," Zen-Ruffinen said.
"Once the eight seeded nations are allocated into each group, eight European nations will be drawn and placed in each group from A to H. The three remaining European teams will then be drawn and placed in a group which does not already contain two other European teams."
The draw will be conducted along the following lines:
Pot 1: Seeds: France, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Spain
Pot 2:The 11 remaining European teams: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey
Pot 3:Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, China, Saudi Arabia
Pot 4:Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Mexico, United States.
Additional reporting by Reuters