The draw for the 2006 World Cup qualifying groups will take place in the German city of Frankfurt later today (4.00 p.m. Irish time)
All of the home nations, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales will be waiting with bated breath to see who comes out of the hat.
The World Cup qualifying campaign is the most important series of matches for any country - failure almost inevitably sees the end of most coaches' tenures and that would almost certainly be the case as far as Sven-Goran Eriksson (if he is still there), Berti Vogts, Mark Hughes and Brian Kerr are concerned.
Formula One champion Michael Schumacher and Italian referee Pierluigi Collina will make the draw for the 51 countries vying to be the 13 European teams who qualify for the World Cup to be held in Germany.
England, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all been seeded in different pots - meaning that all or some of them could be drawn into the same group.
Eriksson's side are among the top seeds and the team to avoid among the second seeds are Holland, although England would probably prefer not to face Kerr's Ireland team either.
Scotland are among the third seeds, and Vogts will also be keen to avoid Holland after the 6-0 drubbing they received in the Euro 2004 play-off second leg in Amsterdam.
Wales have just scraped in to make it as fourth seeds which should help Hughes' side as they aim once more to qualify for the finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1958 having just missed out on Euro 2004.
Managerless Northern Ireland are among the fifth seeds - but they are not quite among the minnows as there are two other pots beneath them.
The eight qualifying groups are split into three containing seven countries and five containing six sides. It has already been decided that England will be in a six-team group.
A FIFA spokesman said: "England, France, Italy and Spain will be drawn into six-team groups due to the greater number of matches played as a result of having more domestic clubs involved in international club competitions."
The eight winners of each group and the two best-placed runners-up will qualify automatically, with the six other runners-up playing off for the remaining three spots.