Aristotle was right. Man is a political animal. Organizations made up by men are even more political. Those who argue that FIFA is heavily political should read this –
Two-and-a-half months before the draw for the 2018 World Cup takes place in Moscow on Dec. 1, FIFA announced a fairly significant change to the event’s format.
Whereas in the past years, World Cup draws have been partially seeded, with the top eight teams in one pot and the remaining 24 separated by confederation, the 2018 World Cup draw will be fully seeded. That means Russia and the top seven qualifiers in the October FIFA Rankings will go into Pot 1. The next eight highest-rated nations will go into Pot 2, the next eight into Pot 3, and the final eight into Pot 4. Geographic restrictions still apply – teams from the same region cannot be drawn alongside each other, except for European countries, which can go two-to-a-group – but the pots will be decided differently.
Here’s what this could hypothetically look like, based on the current World Cup qualifying landscape and the FIFA Rankings:
POT 1: Russia, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland
POT 2: France, Colombia, Spain, Peru, Mexico, England, Uruguay, Italy
POT 3: Croatia, Northern Ireland, Costa Rica, Sweden, Iran, USA, Egypt, Tunisia
POT 4: Serbia, Senegal, Japan, Nigeria, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ivory Coast, Panama
