"Although don't worry if you tune in late: based on previous draws there will be a few speeches about Fifa being on the verge of bringing about world peace via the medium of football, some interpretive dance about Fifa being on the verge of bringing about world peace via the medium of football, some videos with kids kicking a ball about to show that Fifa is on the verge of bringing about world peace via the medium of football,"
"And if you miss any of that, don't worry Fifa will also be awarding a peace prize to the person most likely to bring about world peace in the next few months (more on that zinger later). At some point in all of that, they'll place teams into groups and at long last give this expanded tournament an actual schedule."
"The 12 groups for the World Cup will then be formed by one team from each pot (full pots listed later). Sounds simple! Well, not quite. There are still six qualification places to be decided via playoffs in late March, and teams involved in those matches have been placed in Pot 4. That means a team such as Italy will be ostensibly the weakest opponents in a group,"
The World Cup draw will start at Washington DC's Kennedy Center at 12pm local time on Friday 5 December (5pm GMT/4am Saturday AEST). The event will include speeches, performances and videos before teams are placed into groups. Forty-eight teams are split into four pots of 12. Pot 1 contains three co-hosts and the nine highest-ranked teams; the remaining pots follow the Fifa rankings with the lowest-ranked qualifiers in Pot 4. Six final qualification places will be decided via playoffs in late March, and teams involved in those playoffs have been assigned to Pot 4. Teams from the same qualifying confederation are generally kept apart, creating complications for Europe given Uefa's large number of entrants.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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