LUCERNE - The seedings for Sunday's Euro 2008 draw have thrown up the possibility of Holland, Italy, Germany and France all being in the same group.
The emergence of a "group of death" in Lucerne is a distinct possibility, as is an "easy" group with Greece, Sweden, Romania and Poland all able to be drawn together.
UEFA have calculated the seedings on the basis of results in the qualification tournaments for the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 and not taken into account performances in the finals in Germany last year.
As a result, world champions Italy find themselves among the pot of second seeds and beaten finalists France among the four bottom seeds.
France coach Raymond Domenech has lambasted the seeding system though his Italian counterpart Roberto Donadoni has insisted he is not worried by his country's position.
Domenech said: "It's laughable if the world champions don't get the final top seeding.
"Who does deserve to be top if not Italy? We were finalists in the World Cup, we qualified for this with points to spare, and there are practically 12 teams ahead of us.
"I do not understand how."
Donadoni said he was simply happy to have qualified.
He added: "There is no point making a fuss about it, we will wait for the draw and then assess it."
The top seeds, for once, do not contain the strongest teams because three of the four spaces are reserved for joint hosts Austria and Switzerland and reigning European champions Greece.
As a result, a place among the second seeds was more highly-prized but Holland found themselves in the top pot despite being defeated by Belarus in their last Euro 2008 qualifier.
Italy are among the second seeds - along with the Czech Republic, Croatia and Sweden - and Germany one of the third seeds alongside Romania, Portugal and Spain.
France's position among the bottom seeds - the other countries are Poland, Turkey and Russia - can be explained by their unimpressive qualifying campaigns for this tournament and the last World Cup.
They were beaten home and away by Scotland and drew with Ukraine. In qualifying for the World Cup, Domenech's side drew five of their 10 matches against the likes of Switzerland, Israel and the Republic of Ireland.
