England manager Roy Hodgson does not fear being thrown into a group of death in today's World Cup draw.

Fifa this week changed the draw format, potentially increasing England's chances of being placed into a nightmare group including hosts Brazil or old foes Argentina.

Under the new format, one of the nine teams in Pot Four, which contains the unseeded European sides including England, would be picked at random to move up to Pot Two.

That team would then be drawn against one of the South American seeds - such as Brazil or Argentina - and another big European nation like Holland, Italy or France.

Hodgson has no problem with Fifa's decision and he will not be peering through his fingers in fear when the names are pulled out of the hat in Salvador.

"We respect everybody, we don't fear anybody," Hodgson said. "Being here really brings it all home, all the hard work has led to this and we can't wait now to see who we get."

The worst-case scenario for England would be that they were drawn against Brazil, the United States and Italy, who knocked the Three Lions out of Euro 2012.

"You don't know whether being in Pot Two could turn out to be an advantage or a disadvantage," he said.

"People can speculate as much as they like, but if it happens to you, you just get on with it.

"These are things that are going to happen. Fifa has decided that this is the fairest thing to do and I've got no qualms with that.

"I'm more than happy wherever we find ourselves, whatever pot we find ourselves in, whoever we're asked to play.

"I'm just so happy that we're here and I think we'll give a good account of ourselves when we get here."

Meanwhile, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has admitted that the stadium in Sao Paulo which is due to hold the opening match of the 2014 World Cup will not be ready until mid-April.

The stadium was the site where two workers were killed when a crane fell over last month and Blatter said there was "no plan B" if further problems were encountered.