Egypt handed tough draw

Egypt will play Brazil, Italy and the United States in Group A

African champions Egypt have been handed a tough draw in next year's Fifa Confederations Cup to be held in South Africa.

The Pharaohs will take on reigning world champions Italy, Brazil and United States in Group B following the draw held in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The hosts will take on European champions Spain, Iraq and New Zealand in the other group.

A lop-sided draw was inevitable after the lowest ranked of the eight qualifiers, South Africa, were given the only seeding and automatically dodged Brazil and one of the two European giants.

Maintaining tradition, the opening fixture will feature the host nation so Bafana Bafana tackle Iraq at Ellis Park on 14 June followed four hours later by New Zealand against Spain in the north-west town of Rustenburg.

The second game for the hosts is against traditional rugby rivals New Zealand.

The two teams last met in a football international 60 years ago.

"We are renewing the team and at this point in time we believe we have found about 80 percent of the players for the team," said South Africa coach Joel Santana.

"The Confederations Cup will let us see how much we have improved."

CONFEDERATIONS CUP GROUPS Group A: South Africa, Iraq, New Zealand and Spain Group B: Brazil, Italy, Egypt, United States

Branded the "festival of champions", the quadrennial two-week tournament will serve as an on and off-field dress rehearsal for the World Cup one year later.

But the group line-up will bring relief to Fifa officials stressing over the form of Bafana Bafana, who were eliminated two months ago from the 2010 African Nations Cup qualifying competition.

While two losses to bogey team Nigeria were not unexpected, the failure to win or even score in home and away encounters with lightweights Sierra Leone marked the darkest hour in the 16-year South Africa history.

After strong criticism from Blatter during a recent visit to South Africa, the national team strung together four wins on the trot, but three were in friendlies against virtual second-string Malawi, Ghana and Cameroon line-ups.

The tournament is being played at four of the 10 World Cup venues - Ellis Park in Johannesburg; Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Rustenburg.

The final is at Ellis Park on 28 June.

The tournament is made up of the six continental champions plus World Cup winners Italy and hosts South Africa.

Brazil are defending champions from the tournament in Germany in 2005.