The field is set for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and now the seeding is as well for the tournament draw. FIFA this month released the official final seedings and pots for the draw, which will take place Friday (Dec. 1) in Moscow.
While the draw will largely follow the same procedures as in recent World Cups, with a team taken from each pot for each of the eight groups at Russia 2018, the seeding for the various pots differs this time around, with all of the teams aside from the host country, Russia, placed based on the FIFA Rankings from October 2017. In the past, only the Pot 1 teams were seeded based on rankings, with the other three pots determined along geographic lines.
One longstanding caveat to the draw that will carry over for the 2018 World Cup is that no group will include multiple teams from the same confederation, aside from Europe, which will have a maximum of two teams in a group because there are a total of 14 teams qualified from UEFA.
The 2018 World Cup draw will be televised in the United States on FS1 at 9 am CT on Friday.
