The national teams drawn during the draw will be arranged in groups in alphabetical order from A to J and the drawn national teams that are subject to restrictions in the draw will be arranged in the first available group, also in alphabetical order. Since there are only five teams in the sixth seeded group, they will be put on the sixth place in groups F to J.
It is already known that the participants in the final tournament of the elite class of the Nations League (Belgium, France, Spain and Italy) will be in groups of five teams each. Due to political reasons, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo and Russia, Ukraine and Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as Gibraltar and Spain cannot be in the same group.
The draw will be partially conducted to avoid the possibility of playing in severe winter conditions, if more than two national teams (Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia or Ukraine) find themselves in the same group as and to prevent excessive distances when traveling.
The qualification cycle for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will start in March 2021 and will last until November of the same year, and the teams will play in groups according to a two-round system. The ten winners of the groups will secure a direct qualification for the World Cup, and the ten runners-up will try to qualify through the play-offs, which are scheduled for 24th to 29th March 2022.
In addition to the ten runners-up from the group stage, the two best national teams in the overall standings of the UEFA Nations League for the 2020/2021 season will also be in the play-offs, which will not directly qualify for the World Cup, nor win the play-offs as the runners-up in the group. Twelve national teams in the play-offs will be divided into three groups of four teams, and in March 2022, according to the knock-out system, they will fight for the three remaining places at the World Cup in Qatar.
From 21st November to 18th December 2022, the World Cup will be held in five Qatari cities (Doha, Lusail, Al Khor, Al Wakrah, Al Rayyan).
SEEDED GROUPS
Group 1
Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands.
Group 2
Switzerland, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia, Romania.
Group 3
Russia, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Greece, Finland.
Group 4
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Belarus, Georgia, Luxembourg.
Group 5
Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Andorra.
Group 6
Malta, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and San Marino.
FOTO: FIFA.com
