Cape Town, Dec 3 (DPA) The stage is set and the trophy has arrived in Cape Town for South Africa's last major test on the road to hosting the football World Cup in six months time.

The eyes of the world will be trained on Cape Town International Convention Centre for the nail-biting World Cup final draw Friday evening.

The draw, which will be hosted by Oscar-winning South African actress Charlize Theron and FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke, determines the composition of the eight groups for the first round of the tournament.

South Africans are praying the host side will be drawn alongside apparantly easier opponents such as North Korea or New Zealand to ease their passage into the second round.

"I hope for a good draw for our nation. We don't want to be the first nation to drop out in the first round," Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the FIFA World Cup local organizing committee, admitted.

The 32 teams will be drawn from four pots into eight groups of four teams.

World champions Italy, European champions Spain, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany, Argentina and England join hosts South Africa as seeded teams in pot 1 and will be drawn as heads of groups B-H as South Africa will top group A.

Pot 2 is composed of teams from Asia (Australia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea), North, Central America and the Caribbean (Honduras, Mexico, USA) and Oceania
(New Zealand).

Pot 3 has teams from Africa (Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria) and South America (Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay).

Pot 4 has the remaining European teams (Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland).

All but one of the 32 team coaches are among the 2,000 invited guests at the 90-minute ceremony, which will be be beamed live to television viewers in over 20 countries as well as to around 15,000 people watching on giant screens in central Cape Town.

Conspicuously absent will be Argentina coach Maradona.

The flamboyant football legend has been barred from FIFA events for two months over a foul-mouthed outburst directed at his critics after Argentina scraped through the qualifiers.

Rumour had it he was planning on showing up anyway but FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke warned he would be not be allowed entry.

A handful of top players including Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and ex-England captain David Beckham will also be present, as will South African President Jacob Zuma, Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu and other local dignitaries.

The ceremony will have a strong African flavour.

The three headline musical acts, who will be performing on a wooden stage that cost nearly a square kilometre of timber, have been chosen to showcase the continent's diversity.

They are the two-time Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir, veteran South African popstar Johnny Clegg, known affectionately as the White Zulu for mixing Zulu and English lyrics and rhythms as far back as the apartheid era, and singer Angelique Kidjo of Benin, also a Grammy winner and activist.

Theron herself is also a seasoned entertainer, on and off the movie set. During rehearsals for the draw this week in Cape Town she was in playful mood, calling out "Ireland" when she pulled the France ball in a dig over France's controversial victory over Ireland in the play-offs.

For Jordaan, Friday's draw will put paid to years of 2010 South Africa scepticism in Europe.

"Tomorrow ... will be the death of doubt," he said Thursday.

Security is is tight for the event.

Military helicopters have been combing the streets from the sky all week, provided backup to around 1,587 police and private security guards.

"You are ready, I am ready, Africa is ready, South Africa is ready, Cape Town is ready," FIFA boss Joseph Blatter said Wednesday.

He was speaking at a ceremony on a hill overlooking Cape Town's new Greenpoint Stadium.

Construction workers were racing this week to complete the 68,000-seat semi-final venue - one of five new stadiums being built for the tournament - by December 15.

While the stadium's cost, which are on a par with Beijing's Bird's Nest, have drawn criticism, its stunning location at the foot of Table Mountain and bowl-shaped design have been showered with praise.

"I am so proud to be a part of this," Sanele Zibane, a 24-year-old student from Durban who volunteered to assist at the draw told the German Press Agency (DPA).

"When I am old, I can tell my grandchildren, I was there with the whole world."