The intention of seeding is rewarding the best by ensuring they avoid the other strongest teams in the group stage.
Host Brazil is automatically seeded in Group A. The decision to allocate the other seven seeds by the October rankings alone was agreed on by the FIFA executive committee only this month.
That leaves the Netherlands, Italy and England -- all seeded at the 2010 World Cup when FIFA rankings were again decisive -- lurking as potential opponents for Argentina early in the tournament.
England coach Roy Hodgson expects "two very, very good teams in every group," with FIFA set to allocate the other places by geographical spread rather than ranking.
"It's pretty unnecessary to worry too much about whether we are the first or second out of the hat," Hodgson said on Wednesday.
Still, Lionel Messi and Argentina might prefer to face Switzerland instead, after their classy 3-1 victory in a February 2012 friendly at Bern where the world's best player scored all three.
Switzerland's young team is certainly better since failing even to reach the 2012 European Championship.
