The United States will not be participating in the 2018 FIFA World Cup after failing to qualify for the first time in more than 20 years – there, that’s out of the way now. The World Cup is still the biggest tournament in international soccer, with 211 countries competing for a place in the final tournament. More than three billion fans tuned in to watch the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, dwarfing the audience that watched last year’s Super Bowl which reached 114.4 million fans globally. The World Cup is a big deal – with or without the United States.
The 2018 tournament will be held in Russia, with Fox as the U.S. broadcast partner. This Friday, December 1, the matchups that make up the tournament will be officially determined with Minnesota United’s very own Francisco Calvo and Johan Venegas likely representing Costa Rica on the world’s stage after the Ticos qualified second in CONCACAF play this summer.
How It Works
The 32 teams that make up the tournament are arranged into four seeding pots based on their October 2017 FIFA ranking. Pot 1 contains the top seven teams with the highest ranking and the host team Russia, with Pot 2 populated by the next eight highest teams and so on.
The eight teams within each pot are then re-allocated into eight groups of four, labelled A to H, with teams competing against the other teams in their group during this first stage. However, teams from the same confederation cannot be matched up against each other in the group stage, with UEFA teams as the only exceptions. This means that Mexico and Costa Rica cannot be included in the same group, since they both qualified from the North American Confederation.
Here is the breakdown of the pots ahead of the draw:
POT 1 |
POT 2 |
POT 3 |
POT 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
Germany (1) |
Spain (6) |
Denmark (12) |
Serbia (37) |
Brazil (2) |
Switzerland (8) |
Sweden (18) |
Australia (39) |
Portugal (3) |
Peru (11) |
Iceland (22) |
Morocco (40) |
Argentina (4) |
Colombia (13) |
Senegal (23) |
Nigeria (50) |
Belgium (5) |
England (15) |
Costa Rica (26) |
Japan (55) |
Poland (7) |
Mexico (16) |
Tunisia (27) |
Panama (56) |
France (9) |
Croatia (17) |
Egypt (30) |
South Korea (59) |
Russia (hosts, 65) |
Uruguay (21) |
Iran (32) |
Saudi Arabia (63) |
*Bracketed rank is current, with pots decided before the ranks were updated
How To Tune In
The group stage draw will take place at 9 a.m. CT at the State Kremlin Palace inside the Moscow Kremlin, hosted by England international Gary Lineker and Russian journalist Maria Komandnaya. While exact broadcast details have not been confirmed, here in the U.S. the draw will likely be televised on Fox. Fans will also be able to watch the draw live online at FIFA.COM.
