World Cup qualifying draw LIVE: road to Qatar 2022 to be revealed

The draw will begin with pot 1 and see each pot emptied completely before the next stage, with a team from each pot drawn into a group in alphabetical order from Group A to Group J.

There will be five groups of five and five containing six teams, with the five nations from pot 6 placed into the sixth slot in groups F to J.

FIFA has confirmed the initial schedule for the 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar.

Teams will play each other home and away, with the 10 group winners qualifying directly for Qatar 2022. The 10 group runners-up, meanwhile, will enter the World Cup play-offs alongside the two best group winners from the Nations League that did not finish inside the top two in their World Cup qualifying groups.

The four teams that have qualified for the latest Nations League Finals – Belgium, Italy, France and Spain – must be drawn into one of the groups containing five teams (groups A to E) due to a reduced number of matchdays available.

The fact that all four of those teams are from pot 1 means that there is no worries regarding more than one being drawn into the same group, which would not be permitted.

According to Fifa’s detailed draw procedures, Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot be drawn into the same group. That also applies for Gibraltar and Spain, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo and Russia, and Russia and Ukraine.

There are also restrictions aimed at minimising excessive travel, while a maximum of two countries from a list of Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Ukraine can be drawn into the same group due to a risk of “severe winter weather conditions”.

Seedings for the draw – based on world rankings – were confirmed last month, with England placed in pot 1 alongside the likes of reigning world champions France and the planet’s no1-ranked team Belgium, whom they recently played twice in the Nations League.

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