The World Cup stadium – part it, part rally rally, part math symposium – will finally give each team and their fans the answer to the question they’ve been asking from the moment they qualified for the tournament:
First, though, you have to understand how the draw works.
Each team was assigned to one of four pots, based on their world ranking. (The last three places on the field in the playoffs will be decided in June, but their tracks will be decided on Friday.)
Here’s how FIFA, the governing body for world football, rounds up the teams for the draw:
pot 1: Qatar (host country), Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal
pot 2: Mexico, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, United States, Croatia
Pot 3: Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia
pot 4: Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Intercontinental play-off winner (Costa Rica or New Zealand), Intercontinental play-off winner (Peru, Australia or United Arab Emirates), European play-off winner (Ukraine, Scotland or Wales )
Once the draw starts, one team from each bet will be placed in each of the eight world Cup Opening round groups. Teams are grouped by relative strength, to ensure equal distribution, and there are also rules to keep them away from regional competitors. Each group may have no more than two teams from Europe, for example, and no more than one from any other continent.
You can feel the whole process a little systematic Sometimes: First, a ball is drawn from one of the pots containing the names of each team in that pot. A second ball is then drawn to position the team, which must be done carefully to ensure that the rules for regional competitions are followed.
It’s risky – a tough lottery could determine the team’s fate long before it arrives in Qatar. But withdrawals can go wrong, too, As you know the Champions League is in December. She announced her upcoming matches in the knockout rounds before she discovered a mistake, and had to do an embarrassing job.
FIFA hopes to avoid that at all costs today.
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