FIFA confirmed the pots for Friday’s World Cup draw on Tuesday, putting the seeded teams in Pot 1, the African and South American teams in Pot 2, the CONCACAF and Asian teams in Pot 3 and the remaining nine European teams in Pot 4.
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To make the number in each pot equal, at the start of the draw one of the nine European teams will be drawn into Pot 2, and will definitely face one of the seeded South American sides.
Eight teams were seeded — host Brazil and the top seven in FIFA’s October rankings — and the other 24 teams were placed in pots based on “geographic and sports criteria.”
At Friday’s draw, one team from each pot will be placed in each of the eight World Cup groups.
The draw will be organised so that there will be no more than two European teams in any group of four countries, and all the South American teams will be kept apart.
Pot 1 includes Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.
The countries in Pot 2 are the unseeded South American countries and the qualifiers from Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Ghana and Nigeria.
Pot 3 is made up of the teams from Asia and and north and central America: Australia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, USA.
In Pot 4 there are nine unseeded European teams: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia.
1.In order to create an even flow to the draw as Pots 1-4 are emptied, we begin by drawing one ball from Pot 4 (containing a European team) and placing it into Pot 2 to achieve an equal balance of eight teams in each pot
2.Pot 1 will then be emptied beginning with Brazil; teams will be allocated to position 1 of Groups A through H sequentially
3.With the addition of the European team to Pot 2, Pot 2 will contain teams from three different qualification zones. With teams from three zones in the same pot, we increase the risk of inadvertently violating the principle of geographic separation. In order to ensure we do not mistakenly end up with three European teams in the same Group, the following mechanism will be implemented:
– The four seeded South American teams will be placed in an ancillary pot – Pot X
– One of the four teams will be drawn
– The Group of the South American which is drawn will determine the Group which the European team from Pot 2 will join Final Draw Procedures
4.Pot 2 will then be emptied, beginning with the European ball:
– The European team will join Group of South American team drawn from Pot X
– The remaining teams will be allocated to Groups A through H sequentially
(Note: Groups may be skipped to respect principle of geographic separation; e.g. Chile and Ecuador may not be drawn into Groups with seeded South American teams)
5.Pots 3 and 4 will then be emptied in order
6.The positions within Groups A through H will be drawn for all teams of Pots 2, 3 and 4.