Fifa To Keep Top Seeds Apart In World Cup Draw

The apical 4 seeded countries will not beryllium capable to meet each different until nan semi-finals of adjacent year's World Cup for nan first clip successful nan tournament's history.

Fifa has announced that Spain (1st seed) and Argentina (2) will beryllium 'paired' and placed into groups successful other halves of nan draw.

France (3) and England (4) will besides beryllium paired, which intends England will not beryllium capable to travel up against Spain aliases Argentina until nan semi-finals, and France until nan final.

This only applies if nan 4 countries triumph their groups.

When 2 teams are paired, they are placed successful other halves of nan knockout bracket and cannot meet each different until nan final. This happens astatine Wimbledon, and successful nan caller Champions League format, wherever seeds are kept isolated successful pairs.

Fifa wants to guarantee nan top-ranked countries do not meet earlier successful nan knockout rounds, frankincense perchance creating blockbuster games later successful nan tournament. The aforesaid ranking strategy was utilized for nan Club World Cup successful nan summer.

France knocked England retired of nan 2022 World Cup pinch a 2-1 triumph successful nan quarter-finals, while Spain hit nan Three Lions successful nan Euro 2024 final.

The 4 pots for nan last draw, which takes spot connected Friday, 5 December (17:00 GMT), person besides been confirmed.

Scotland will beryllium successful cookware three, pinch nan six play-off paths - which includes Wales, Northern Ireland, nan Republic of Ireland and Italy - each successful cookware four.

Debutants Uzbekistan are successful cookware three, pinch chap first-timers Jordan, Cape Verde and Curacao successful cookware four.