World Cup 2022 draw seeds and pots explained: What pot will England be in, who could Scotland or Wales face?

The draw for the Group Stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar is due to be made today.

There will be 32 nations taking part with 29 of those having already booked their spot as of Thursday.

Those 32 teams will be divided into eight groups of four and will be drawn based on seeding.

That means that it will not be possible for many of the top nations to be drawn in the same group, while many lower ranked teams will find themselves up against the very best.

Ahead of the draw, here is everything we know so far about how the teams will be seeded for the draw including which pot England will be in and where Wales or Scotland could end up should they qualify.

World Cup draw seeds and pots explained

The draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals will be seeded with the nations’ current world ranking determining which pot they are placed into.

The top seven ranked nations in the world will be placed in Pot 1 along with host nation Qatar who are automatically drawn into Group A and will kick off the finals in the first fixture.

There will be four pots in total with Pot 2 featuring the next eight highest ranked teams and Pot 3 the next eight after that.

Pot 4 will then feature the next five highest ranked nations along with winners of the two inter-confederation play-offs and the winner of the Wales v Scotland or Ukraine play-off.

What pot will England be in for the World Cup draw?

Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions will feature in Pot 1 for Friday’s draw.

The other seven teams in their pot are:

• Qatar
• Brazil
• Belgium
• France
• Argentina
• Spain
• Portugal

That means that Pot 2 will include no shortage of difficult opposition for England with Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Croatia and Uruguay all potential group stage possibilities.

Meanwhile, Pot 3 also offers no shortage of difficult opposition including the likes of Africa Cup of Nations winners Senegal, Poland and Serbia.

The winner of the Wales v Scotland/Ukraine play-off final are placed in pot 4 along with the only two other places still to be decided which will come via two inter-federation play-offs which are Peru v Australia / United Arab Emirates and Costa Rica v New Zealand.

Here are the remaining pot seedings:

Pot 2 - Mexico, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, United States, Croatia.

Pot 3 - Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia.

Pot 4 - Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Wales or Scotland / Ukraine, Costa Rica or New Zealand, Peru or Australia / United Arab Emirates.

Are there any other rules which will impact the draw?

Europe is the only continent allowed to have more than one nation in the same group.

As UEFA will have 13 members competing at the finals, it would be impossible to avoid teams being drawn together and each group is guaranteed to have at least one UEFA member nation but no more than two.

That means that England have a very high probability of drawing another UEFA member nation as well as slightly increased odds of facing a South American side due to Brazil and Argentina both also being in Pot 1.