With the 2022 World Cup in Qatar less than nine months away, fans from across the world are beginning to click into tournament mode, ahead of the group stage draw.
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The World Cup Draw is scheduled for Friday, April 1, at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC) venue in Doha, with a start time at 12 p.m. ET.
As it stands, 29 nations have already confirmed their place at the World Cup, with three places still up for grabs through continental and intercontinental playoffs that will be held in June. Placeholders will represent those three remaining spots for purposes of the draw.
The 32 names (including the three placeholders) will be split up into four pots based on the FIFA World Rankings with top seeds in Pot 1 and lower seeds in Pot 4. Groups A-H will then be filled sequentially with a name from each pot. The draw will start with the placement of all the Pot 1 teams, and it will end with the Pot 4 teams.
More information on the draw, how to watch it and how the pots work follows below.
World Cup Draw pots
On March 31 FIFA released the updated FIFA World Rankings which were used to sort the teams in each pot ahead of the draw on April 1.
The top eight teams go in Pot 1, the next best eight teams in Pot 2 and so on. Pot 4 contains the three placeholders for the spots yet to be claimed even though some teams in the running for those playoff berths have a ranking deserving of a different pot.
Pot groupings follow below with the March 2022 FIFA World Ranking in parentheses.(*Qatar is in Pot 1 as host nation as is customary per tournament tradition).
How World Cup Draw works for Qatar 2022
Per the official FIFA World Cup Draw procedure, a team will be selected from each pot beginning with Pot 1 and proceeding to Pot 4. The first team selected from each pot will go into Group A, the second into Group B and so on until the pot has emptied.
Geographic restrictions
There are geographic restrictions at play: Teams which hail from the same region cannot be drawn in the same group, except in the case of Europe. Since there are 13 European countries involved in the draw, the rules establish a maximum of two European teams in any one group.
If a team is picked out of the pot into a group which presents a geographic restriction, then that team is allotted to the next group in line. For example, if a team cannot be part of Group B, it would be placed in Group C. Then the next team drawn would fill the Group B spot that was bypassed.
Group placement
All Pot 1 teams are automatically assigned the group designation of A1, B1, C1, and so on through Group H. However, for teams in Pots 2-4, there is a different method to determine their group placement.
After a team from Pot 2-4 is selected for a specific group, the team’s group placement will be determined by a selection from a different bowl. For example, if a team is picked to be in Group D, then its placement in the group will be determined by the selection of a D2, D3 or D4 ball from a pot.
Why is this group placement important to be randomly selected? It determines the order of group matches. The matchups are predetermined on the different days depending on the placement in the group. Although each team has to face the others in the group either way, the order of matches is left to chance.
Kickoff times & stadium
FIFA has already made it clear that although we’ll know the matchups, the world governing body will go back and assign kickoff times and stadium to each matchup after the draw to take into account TV windows in specific countries as well as travel inside Qatar for fans.Bottom line: The complete match schedule with times and venues will come at a future date.
How to watch the FIFA World Cup Draw
FIFA will also be providing live coverage, with a live stream on the official FIFA Youtube channel.
The formal draw ceremony will be led by U.S. national team legend Carli Lloyd, along with former England international Jermaine Jenas and presenter Samantha Johnson.
Former stars and coaches will assist with the draw process, including:
- CafuÂ
- Tim Cahill
- Ali Daei
- Rabah Madjer
- Adel Ahmed MalAllah
- Lothar Matthaus
- Bora MilutinovicÂ
According to FIFA, there will be 2,000 guests in attendance for the draw.
