The draw for the European section of 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying is set to take place this afternoon in Zurich.
The ten group winners will automatically qualify for a spot at the finals in 2022 with a further three places available to European teams. Those places will be contested for via play-offs made up by the 10 group runners-up and the two best 2020-21 Nations League group winners.
The qualifiers will be played between March and November 2021.
55 National Associations will be allocated in to six pots – five containing 10 teams and one containing five teams – based on the FIFA world rankings as of November 26, 2020.
Scotland are set to be in Pot 3, meaning they will be guaranteed to be paired with two sides above and below them in the rankings, with a chance of being landed with a third side lower ranked should Steve Clarke and his side be drawn in a six team group.
Here are the pots in full, ordered from highest to lowest ranked sides in each pot:
Pot 1: Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands
Pot 2: Switzerland, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Russia, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Greece, Finland
Pot 4: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Belarus, Georgia, Luxembourg
Pot 5: Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Latvia, Andorra
Pot 6: Malta, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar, San Marino
The draw takes place this afternoon at 5pm UK time. The event will be hosted virtually from Zurich, with managers attending via video conference.
Fans can watch the draw live online via FIFA’s official website – fifa.com – as well as on the networks of FIFA’s broadcast partners.
It can also be streamed live online through UEFA’s official website – uefa.com.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
