FIFA's decision not to seed the 1998 World Cup winners has left France as the most dangerous floater in the draw for the 32-nation tournament and the team the eight top seeds will all most want to avoid.
France, losing finalists to Italy in the last World Cup in 2006, acquired sudden notoriety last month when they went through a play-off against Ireland thanks to a goal following a blatant handball by French striker Thierry Henry.
FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told a news conference on Wednesday the seedings were based on October's FIFA world rankings.
None of the seeded nations would fancy such a dangerous opponent as France in their group although Portugal, another unseeded team and Ivory Coast, probably the best of Africa's six representatives, are also on the list of teams they would hope to avoid.
"There is no good news or bad news just like there is no good draw or bad draw," he said.
"In 2006, everyone thought we had an easy draw and we struggled to go through. I hope we will not be in a 'Group of Death'."
The draw starts at 5pm GMT in Cape Town's International Convention Centre and will be broadcast live to more than 200 countries in a 90-minute television spectacular hosted by South African actor Charlize Theron and Valcke.
Appropriately for Africa's first World Cup, there will be a strong African theme to the draw which will feature African music and dancing and a number of African sports personalities.
Most of the coaches of the 32 teams will also attend although Argentina's Diego Maradona will be forced to stay away after being banned from football by FIFA for two months for a foul-mouthed tirade against journalists following his team's qualification for the finals.
