FIFA have approved the procedure for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia final draw, to be held in Moscow on December 1.
The Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions, chaired by President of UEFA Aleksander Čeferin, met in Zürich on Thursday, the same day tickets to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia went on sale.
“During the meeting, the committee discussed the key lessons learnt from the successful FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 and was updated about the state of preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup,” a FIFA statement said.
FIFA stated that the October 2017 edition of world football’s governing body official rankings will be used to allocate all qualified teams to the four pots 1 to 4, each pot containing eight teams.
The teams will enter each pot according to their ranking in descending order, with the best seven teams along with hosts Russia in pot 1.
“The principle of drawing the teams into the groups will remain unchanged. Hence, no teams from the same confederation, with the exception of UEFA, which could have up to two teams in the same group, will be drawn into the same group.
“Eight groups of four teams will be labelled A to H: the four pots will be emptied completely by allocating one of their eight teams to each of the eight groups,” the statement concluded.
Another decision made by the committee was the date of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, which will be held in France from June 7 to July 7, 2019.
Furthermore, the committee confirmed the decision to replay the Russia 2018 qualifier between South Africa and Senegal, held on 12 November 2016 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld the lifetime ban of match referee Joseph Lamptey for match manipulation.
The match will be replayed in November 2017 international window, with the exact date to be confirmed in due course.