• No seed for France: France will not be a seeded team for Friday’s World Cup draw, meaning Les Bleus could face powerful teams such as Brazil or Spain in the group stage. Host South Africa will be seeded in Group A and open the World Cup at Soccer City on June 11. The United States will be in a group with one of the seeded teams, a European team and a team from either Africa or South America. The other seeded teams — based on a mixture of current FIFA rankings and historical World Cup results — are Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England. France won the World Cup in 1998 and was runner-up in 2006 but struggled to qualify for the 2010 event.

• FIFA: No extra refs at World Cup, investigates Henry: FIFA rejected the use of extra match officials at the 2010 World Cup on Wednesday, instead opening a disciplinary case against France’s Thierry Henry for a hand ball in the World Cup playoff against Ireland. Henry’s hand ball in the World Cup playoff led to a goal and eliminated Ireland. The uproar following the non-call helped prompt Wednesday’s emergency meeting of its executive committee ahead of the World Cup draw in South Africa. The world soccer governing body rejected an appeal by Ireland for the game to be replayed or adding it as a 33rd team at the World Cup.

— From wire reports