#world-cup-draw

#world-cup-draw

With Franz Beckenbauer cast in the role of glamorous assistant, Sepp Blatter, secretary general of Fifa, revealed the first non-seeded country out of the bowl at the draw for the 1998 World Cup - Scotland. Into Pool A with Brazil they went - and on went the draw. Not much messing about in 1998. Looking at it now, in a time of endless preamble and an on-stage banterfest that would test the patience of a saint, they moved at breakneck speed back then.

When the sculptor Joel Shapiro created Blue, the piece that stands around the back of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, looking out over the Potomac River in Washington, he wanted to tap into a number of elements. The giant matchstick figure denotes movement and energy, risk and possibility. As Shapiro himself has said, it is supposed to reconfigure depending on how you look at it.

It really did happen, you know. Scotland are going to the 2026 World Cup. Maybe it will all feel real when Heidi Klum and Kevin Hart begin co-hosting duties at Friday's draw? Hmm, probably not. What about when the Village People take their turn to perform on stage? Or Robbie Williams? Or Andrea Bocelli? Or Nicole Scherzinger? Guess we will have to wait for some famous former footballer to awkwardly crack open a small plastic ball to reveal 'Scotland' on an unfolded piece of paper for it all to sink in.

Croatia are the highest-ranked potential Pot 2 opponents (10th) and reached the final and the semi-finalis at the past two World Cups respectively but, with a maximum of two European teams in each group, drawing them would eliminate for England the possibility of facing Erling Haaland's Norway, who are in Pot 3, or Italy, who are in Pot 4, if the four-time champions get through the playoffs in March.

Staged just a mile from the White House, Friday's World Cup draw will have a distinctly political feel. The glittering ceremony will take place at the Kennedy Center, the famous Washington arts venue now chaired by US President Donald Trump after he overhauled its board this year. Alongside stars from football, US sports and show business, Trump will be in attendance, as will the leaders of the other two co-hosts - Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney.