Pots Confirmed For FIFA World Cup Draw

FIFA today confirmed the pots for Friday’s World Cup Draw. The soccer organizing committee decided to put all nine European teams as unseeded countries (rather than ranked according to their FIFA ranking) into Pot 4, with one Pot 4 team will be drawn into Pot 2.

The United States is placed in Pot 3. They have a 25% chance of being selected into the Group of Death.

The pots are:

Pot 1
Brazil
Spain
Germany
Argentina
Colombia
Belgium
Uruguay
Switzerland

Pot 2
Chile
Ecuador
Ivory Coast
Ghana
Algeria
Nigeria
Cameroon

Pot 3
Australia
Iran
Japan
South Korea
Costa Rica
Mexico
Honduras
United States

Pot 4
Bosnia
Croatia
England
France
Greece
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Russia

The draw will be organized so that there will be no more than two European teams in any group of four countries, and all the South American teams will be kept apart. Also, all of the CONCACAF teams are in the same pot, so the United States won’t be drawn into the same group as Mexico, Costa Rica or Honduras.

A pre-draw will be held to move one of the nine European teams into Pot 2. That European team will then be drawn against one of the four seeded South American teams.

Run The Guardian’s World Cup Draw simulator to see how the draw could look on Friday.