The World Cup field is almost complete. On Friday, soccer teams will learn the answer to the critical question they and their fans want to know: Who will they play when the tournament opens in November in Qatar?
The World Cup draw — part gala, part pep rally, part math seminar — will deliver intriguing clashes of styles, testy political collisions and, if past events are any guide, a few uncomfortable moments.
But given the stakes of the draw, it is also one of the biggest events on the global sports calendar. Here is a look at how it works.
When and where is the draw?
Friday at noon, Eastern time, at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center in Qatar.
How can I watch?
Television coverage in the United States will be on FS1 and Telemundo starting at 11:30 a.m., Eastern time. The draw will be streamed at FIFA.com and on NBC’s Peacock service in the United States. The New York Times will also provide minute-by-minute coverage.
How does it work?
Each team has been assigned to one of four pots, based on its world ranking. One team from each pot will be placed in each of the eight World Cup opening round groups, to ensure the teams are divided by strength. There are also rules to keep them apart from regional rivals. Each group may have no more than two teams from Europe, for example, and no more than one from any other continent.
The entire process can feel a bit methodical at times: First, a ball is pulled from one of the bowls containing the names of each team in that pot. Then a second ball is drawn to place the team in its position, which must be done carefully to ensure that rules about regional rivalries are followed.
It can go badly wrong, as the Champions League learned in December. It had announced its highly anticipated knockout-round matchups before discovering its mistake, and had to stage an embarrassing do over.
Who will actually draw the teams?
Soccer luminaries including Cafu (Brazil), Lothar Matthäus (Germany), Adel Ahmed Malalla (Qatar), Ali Daei (Iran), Bora Milutinovic (Serbia), Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria), Rabah Madjer (Algeria) and Tim Cahill (Australia) will do the actual drawing of the balls out of the bowls.
Who’s in Pot 1?
Since the teams are ordered by their world ranking, Pot 1 traditionally contains the tournament favorites as well as the host nation. That means, in addition to Qatar, this year the pot includes Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, France, England, Spain and Portugal.
What about the other three pots?
Pot 2 consists of the United States, Mexico, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia and Uruguay.
Pot 3 is Serbia, Poland, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, Japan and South Korea.
Pot 4, nominally the weakest teams (though perhaps not this year), holds Canada, Ghana, Cameroon, Ecuador and Saudi Arabia.
Three teams that have not yet been determined will also be in that pot. A European spot will be taken by Ukraine, Scotland or Wales. Another spot will go to the winner of an intercontinental playoff between Costa Rica and New Zealand, and the last to one of Peru, Australia or the United Arab Emirates. All of those places will be decided by games in June.
Who’s missing?
The chief absentee is Italy, a four-time World Cup winner and the reigning European champion. After missing out in 2018, Italy was eliminated for the second straight cycle when it lost a playoff semifinal against North Macedonia.
Whom will teams want to draw or avoid?
Qatar, which has never qualified for the World Cup on sporting merit, is by far the weakest team in Pot 1, and every team in the other pots will be eager to land in its group. No one will especially want to play Brazil, because it is No. 1 in the world and because, hey, it’s Brazil. France is the defending champion.
Germany and the Netherlands look to be the strongest teams in Pot 2, and Serbia and Poland (with the FIFA world player of the year Robert Lewandowski) could be dangerous from Pot 3. Any team that can qualify from South America is going to be strong, and Ecuador in Pot 4 should frighten many teams ranked above it.
The same goes for Canada, which has a host of young talent and breezed to first place in its qualifying group ahead of the more traditional powers the United States and Mexico.
Who is going to win the World Cup?
The favorites are Brazil, France, England and Spain, in that order, bookmakers say.
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