Ghana will discover their FIFA World Cup 2022 opponents in Friday’s draw.
Twenty-nine of the 32 World Cup teams are known, with two intercontinental play-offs scheduled for June.
The draw will be broadcast live on TV3 from the Doha Exhibition & Conference Centre.
TV3 will also provide significant coverage of the draw and response to it, with 3Sports Editor Juliet Bawuah in Doha offering exclusive updates from the draw event.
The World Cup will be held in Qatar from November 21 to December 18.
Here’s all you need to know about the draw, which will be held in front of approximately 2,000 people.
Who is in it?
Pot 1 (seeded teams): Qatar, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal.
Pot 2: Mexico, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, USA, Croatia.
Pot 3: Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia.
Pot 4: Ghana, Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Wales/Scotland/Ukraine, Costa Rica/New Zealand, UAE/Australia/Peru.
How does it work?
This World Cup follows the same format as previous events, with teams divided into eight groups of four.
Teams are seeded based on the Fifa world rankings released on March 31. The hosts, Qatar, will be seeded in position A1 from Pot 1, with the other top seeds being the top seven rated teams that qualified. England is one of them.
The three play-off winners not yet decided (Wales v Scotland/Ukraine, Costa Rica v New Zealand, UAE/Australia v Peru) will be in the bottom pot of seeds.
The draw will start with the teams in the top pot and work downwards, finishing with the bottom pot.
Following the selection of a team, a second ball will be pulled to determine which group they will be assigned to.
Teams from the same continent will be separated, with the exception of European countries, where no more than two people can be in the same group.
Unlike past World Cups, the match schedule will be determined after the event and will not be determined automatically based on how teams are drawn out.
According to Fifa, this provides “scope to provide a more beneficial kick-off time for audiences at home”.
Why don’t we know all the teams?
Usually all the teams would be known before the World Cup draw but this year three positions are yet to be decided for two different reasons.
Two intercontinental finals will be played in Qatar on 13 and 14 June. Costa Rica and New Zealand meet in one and in the other Peru will play the winner of the United Arab Emirates v Australia, who meet in the Asian play-off in Doha on 7 June.
Those games were moved from March because of knock-on effects of the Covid pandemic in each continent. All the Oceania qualifiers were played from 17 to 30 March in a mini-tournament in Qatar.
One of the three European play-off routes has been delayed because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Scotland’s semi-final against Ukraine at Hampden Park was postponed from March until an unspecified date in June when it is hoped Ukraine will be in a position to play.
The winner of that game will face Wales, who beat Austria in their semi-final, in Cardiff a few days later for a place at the World Cup.
Who could England face?
England could end up in a group with Wales or Scotland, if one of them qualify, since they are in the top and bottom pots respectively and two European nations can be in one group.
The Three Lions could end up in a group with Germany, Africa Cup of Nations champions Senegal and Ecuador – or a theoretically kinder draw could pit them against the USA, Iran and Ghana.
Scotland or Wales could end up with Brazil, Germany, and Senegal – or a more favourable draw could see them face Qatar, the USA, and Tunisia.
- In honor of the World Cup, Qatar has opened a massive sports museum
- Ghana is in Pot 4 of the 2022 World Cup draw.
Who is doing the draw?
Eight former players and managers will be conducting the draw, including World Cup winners Cafu, of Brazil, and Lothar Matthaus, of Germany.
The others will be Jay-Jay Okocha, Tim Cahill, Adel Ahmed MalAllah, Ali Daei, Bora Milutinovic and Rabah Madjer.
Ex-Everton midfielder Cahill scored Australia’s first World Cup goal and played at four tournaments, while former Bolton playmaker Okocha helped Nigeria qualify for their first World Cup in 1994.
Serb Milutinovic is the only person to manage at five consecutive World Cups with different teams (Mexico 1986, Costa Rica 1990, USA 1994, Nigeria 1998 and China 2002).
MalAllah won Fifa World Youth Championship silver with Qatar in 1981 and played at the 1984 Olympics.
Madjer scored for Algeria in their 1982 World Cup win over West Germany, while Daei was the all-time men’s top scorer in internationals with 112 until Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him last year.
Ex-England midfielder Jenas, former USA women’s international Carli Lloyd and British TV presenter Samantha Johnson will conduct the draw.
Who won’t be there?
European champions Italy are the most notable absentees after their play-off defeat by North Macedonia, although they did also miss out on the last World Cup.
Russia also miss out after being kicked out of the play-offs following their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Norway failed to qualify, meaning Borussia Dortmund goal machine Erling Braut Haaland will have to wait for his major tournament debut.
Mohamed Salah and Egypt will not be there either after losing to Senegal on penalties.
Nigeria, Algeria and Ivory Coast are also missing from Africa, while South American teams Colombia and Chile also failed to qualify.
Credit: BBC
