France And Italy Confirmed Among Seeds For World Cup Qualifying Draw

In Russia, Europe dominated the 2018 World Cup with Belgium, Croatia, England and France making the last four. The French went on to win the all-European final 4-2 against Zlatko Dalic’s team. Next Sunday, Les Bleus and other European countries will find out their fate on the road to the 2022 Qatar World Cup with the draw for the European qualifiers.

The world governing body FIFA confirmed the seedings for the European section of qualification for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, with England, Belgium and the reigning world champions in Pot 1. The draw will take place as a virtual event on December 7 in Zurich, Switzerland.

The seedings were allocated based on the latest FIFA ranking, following the completion of the Nations League group stage in November. In Pot 1, the world number one Belgium is joined by France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. It means that no heavyweights will be drawn together in the same group.

France have been seeded for the first time in 12 years. On the road to Brazil in 2014, they finished behind Spain in the qualifiers and defeated Ukraine in a playoff to reach the World Cup. In the next qualifying campaign, the team of Didier Deschamps topped a group that included both Sweden and the Netherlands. Italy failed to qualify for the Russia World Cup, but return as a top seed in this campaign. 

Switzerland narrowly missed out on making Pot 1 after poor results in the recent Nations League. Poland and Sweden are among the other heavyweights in Pot 2. The 2018 World Cup hosts Russia as well as Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland find themselves in Pot 3.

In Pot 4, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina are the most prominent teams. The next pot contains more teams from the periphery of the European game, with among others Faroe Islands, Latvia and Lithuania. Pot 6 groups all the minnows, including UEFA’s low-rankest country San Marino, and they will be drawn into sixth position in groups F to J.

Europe will have 13 representatives at the next World Cup finals. The ten group winners will qualify directly for Qatar 2022, with the ten runners-up advancing to the play-offs. The two best cNations League group winners who do not finish in the top two will complete the playoffs, with the 12 nations split into three paths forming two semifinals and a final in each.

The World Cup qualifiers in Europe get under way in March. The Qatar World Cup will be the first World Cup in winter, scheduled to run from November 21 to December 18 of 2022. It will be the last global finals with 32 teams. In 2026, when the United States, Mexico and Canada stage the tournament, 48 countries will participate. 

Pot selections:

Pot 1: Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Pot 2: Switzerland, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia and Romania

Pot 3: Russia, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Greece and Finland

Pot 4: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Belarus, Georgia and Luxembourg

Pot 5: Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia and Andorra

Pot 6: Malta, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and San Marino

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