Drawing Brazil and Australia would be perfect - Glading

New Zealand Football chief executive Michael Glading has his fingers crossed the All Whites meet heavyweights Brazil and arch-rivals Australia when the World Cup draw is announced on December 5.

Each World Cup country is allocated an 'A', 'B', 'C' or 'D' seeding by Fifa ahead of the draw, which is based on their world ranking.

The rankings will be updated after the last of the World Cup qualifiers and despite the All Whites expecting a jump following their 1-0 victory over Bahrain, Glading said it was certain they would be allocated a `D' seeding.

Each of the eight groups will feature an 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' team for the 32-team competition.

The All Whites are currently ranked 83rd in the world, two spots ahead of hosts South Africa.

Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy and Germany occupy spots one to five, while Australia are ranked No 24.

Glading admitted he had already run a dream draw in his head.

"Brazil or Australia would be great, both would be perfect," Glading said.

"Brazil are obviously the superstars of the sport and everyone's talking about how good it would be to meet Australia. But whatever happens we'll be playing against at least one giant."

In the 1982 World Cup the All Whites drew Brazil, Russia and Scotland in pool play and New Zealand captain Ryan Nelsen had a completely different wishlist to Glading.

"I was watching the '82 recap and remember them saying we want Brazil because if you go to the World Cup you want to play against the best," Nelsen said.

"No, I completely disagree. I want the weakest team as possible and hopefully we can get through."

New Zealand failed to advance out of their pool in 1982 and the TAB is expecting the same result next year.

The TAB has the All Whites at $1.67 odds to return from South Africa without a point.

"Obviously we don't know yet who New Zealand will face in the group stage, but it's unlikely to be any tougher than the Brazil, Russia and Scotland combo that their '82 contemporaries faced," TAB head football bookie Gary Pearn said.

Punters picking the All Whites to win all three of their group games can get odds of $750, while, for the truly patriotic, New Zealand are paying $1000 to lift the World Cup.

Pearn said the 1-0 victory over Bahrain had been a "winner for all".

"From our perspective, New Zealand qualifying for South Africa was imperative to continued high public and media interest, but at the same time we didn't want to get too badly burnt."

- © Fairfax NZ News