Germany, who finished behind England in their qualifying group and had to go through the play-offs to qualify for the World Cup, are set to be seeded in Saturday's draw for the finals ahead of the English.
Senior FIFA sources said today that seven of the eight top-seeded nations were "virtually certain" and that the eighth seeded nation would be decided on Wednesday when the Organising Committee meet for the last time before the draw.
Three of the seeds were automatic choices: world champions France and co-hosts South Korea and Japan. They will almost certainly be joined by Argentina, Italy, Brazil and Germany.
Argentina were the runaway winners of the South American qualifying group and winners of the World Cup in 1978 and 1986.
Italy qualified with ease from their group and have won the World Cup three times. Brazil, despite their unimpressive showing in their qualifying campaign, were losing finalists in 1998 and boast a record four World Cup victories.
Germany have also won the World Cup three times and reached the quarter-finals in 1998.
A number of nations including England, Croatia and Spain are all vying for the eighth spot.
But there is no guarantee that the eighth seed will be European. FIFA sources suggested that the eighth seed could be an African nation which would most likely be Nigeria.
FIFA are also unlikely to seed any country below the eight top seeds, each of which will be placed in a different group in the first round.
Because of the unique nature of this co-hosted World Cup, FIFA want to ensure that there is an equal representation as is possible of European, South American, Africa and Asian countries in both South Korea and Japan.
The already complex draw procedure would become even more unwieldy if teams were also seeded in second, third and fourth ranks as has been the custom in the past.