In recent months, Gareth Southgate has learned the harsh reality that the euphoria of England’s 2018 World Cup campaign was only ever going to last so long. Attention now turns to the 2022 tournament in Qatar as the Three Lions, and indeed the rest of Europe, learn who they’ll be facing in qualifying.
No representatives from the various member states will be present for the draw, which will be held at Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich.
There will be just 13 spots for European nations in Qatar with the tournament itself taking place from 21 November to 18 December 2022. That means a total of 55 countries must be whittled down through a series of qualifiers next year. Teams have been divided into six pots, which have been worked out using FIFA’s current rankings.
Pot 1 contains the 10 highest-ranked nations, including England, Spain, and the world’s current number one Belgium. The pots each contain 10 teams in descending order of the rankings.
The draw takes place on Monday 7 December at around 5pm (UK time) and can be streamed via Uefa’s website.
How does it work?
Between March and November of next year, each side will play the other teams in their groups at home and away.
The 10 teams who win their respective groups will qualify automatically, while the 10 runners-up will head into the play-offs. They will be joined by two more teams – the two best group winners from the Uefa Nations League 2020-21 who did not qualify directly and also failed to reach the play-offs in their qualifying group.
The final play-offs, which will be split into three pathways, will take place in March 2022, with three spots at Qatar up for grabs.
The six pots in full
- Pot 1: Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Holland
- 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
England will avoid the big guns with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and World Cup holders France in their pot. They will also be unable to draw Joachim Low’s struggling Germany or exact revenge on Croatia for their 2018 semi-final defeat.
The Three Lions’ group could well resemble the old-style Home Nations as they can potentially meet Wales, as well as one of Northern Ireland or Scotland.
Since the moment this tournament was handed to Qatar, it has been embroiled in controversy. For many, it is still hard to envisage this World Cup but after Monday’s draw, we will be that bit closer to knowing what it will look like.
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