The Qatar 2022 World Cup Draw

 

Morning, gents! It's a big day in World Cup preparations, as FIFA officials meet in Qatar to draw some little balls out of velvet bags. The set up is fairly simple, with eight groups to be assembled from four pots of teams, based on FIFA rankings. Here they are: 

Pot 1: Qatar, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal

Pot 2: Mexico, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, USA, Croatia

Pot 3: Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia

Pot 4: Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Wales/Scotland/Ukraine, Costa Rica/New Zealand, Peru/UAE/Australia

Of course, we'll be most anxious to see what comes out of the bag for Gareth's England boys, hoping that they'll avoid Germany and the Netherlands in Pot 2 and whoever emerges from the Wales/Scotland/Ukraine rump in Pot 4. An ideal draw for England would be something like: 

England, Switzerland, Iran, and whoever emerges from the Peru/UAE/Aussie rump. 

Similarly, the US, who are generously included in Pot 2 despite finishing third behind Canada and Mexico in Concacaf qualifying, will be dreaming of a group that looks like: 

Qatar, USA, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia

The coverage of the draw starts on Peacock at 11:30am, with the actual draw starting at noon EST.