It would have been nice if they had made the draws for the groups themselves while they were at it, but at least we have a clearer idea of how they might look come Friday afternoon. Or so we would have thought.
Sepp Blatter, various FIFA dignitaries and Ronaldo gathered in Brazil today to determine the make-up of the four pots from which the eight World Cup groups will be drawn on Friday.
Why they couldn’t do it all in one we’re not quite sure, but nobody does ridiculously over-elaborate draw ceremonies quite like FIFA and today was no different.
The identity of the eight teams in Pot One – the top seven ranked teams from the October World Rankings (Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay and Switzerland) and hosts Brazil was already known, so today was about determining the make-up of the other three pots (by geography) and here’s what they came up with.
Pot 1: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland
Pot 2: Algeria, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Ecuador
Pot 3: Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, USA
Pot 4: Bosnia-Herzogovina, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Italy, Netherland, Portugal, Russia
Like most people, you’ll probably be confused why there are seven teams in Pot Two and nine teams in Pot Four and it seems that there will be a draw to determine which of the European teams in Pot Four goes into Pot 2 ahead of the actual draw, while there will also be a mysterious-sounding ‘Pot X’ which will be used in an effort, it seems, to avoid two South American or three European teams ending up in the same group.
Confused? You’re not the only one.
