2018 FIFA World Cup seeding

The draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup took place on 1 December 2017 at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia [1] to determine the groups in which the 32 qualified national teams will play in at the start of the tournament. The teams were put into four pots of eight, with one team selected from each pot to form a group. The draw sequence started with pot 1 and ended with pot 4.[2]

Seeding

All teams were seeded using the October 2017 FIFA World Rankings,[3] which numbers in brackets show, released on 16 October 2017.[4]

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
 Russia (hosts) (65)  Spain (8)  Denmark (19)  Serbia (38)
 Germany (1)  Peru (10)  Iceland (21)  Nigeria (41)
File:Flag of Brazil.svg Brazil (2)  Switzerland (11)  Costa Rica (22)  Australia (43)
 Portugal (3)  England (12)  Sweden (25)  Japan (44)
File:Flag of Argentina.svg Argentina (4) File:Flag of Colombia.svg Colombia (13)  Tunisia (28)  Morocco (48)
File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium (5)  Mexico (16)  Egypt (30)  Panama (49)
 Poland (6) File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay (17)  Senegal (32)  Korea Republic (62)
 France (7)  Croatia (18)  Iran (34)  Saudi Arabia (63)

     AFC      CAF

     CONCACAF      CONMEBOL

     UEFA

Final draw

1 2 3 4 Total Points
Group A  Russia  Saudi Arabia  Egypt File:Flag of Uruguay.svg Uruguay 2,991
Group B  Portugal  Spain  Morocco  Iran 4,128
Group C  France  Australia  Peru  Denmark 4,101
Group D File:Flag of Argentina.svg Argentina  Iceland  Croatia  Nigeria 4,099
Group E File:Flag of Brazil.svg Brazil  Switzerland  Costa Rica  Serbia 4,415
Group F  Germany  Mexico  Sweden  Korea Republic 4,151
Group G File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium  Panama  Tunisia  England 3,953
Group H  Poland  Senegal File:Flag of Colombia.svg Colombia  Japan 3,944

According to the FIFA rankings,[4] the strongest group is E (combining for 4415 points), followed by F (4151), B (4128), C (4101), D (4099), G (3953), H (3944) and the weakest by far is the host nation's group A (2991).

2018 FIFA World Cup Seeding Media

References

  1. Final Draw to take place in State Kremlin Palace (24 January 2017)FIFA.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018. Archived copy. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  2. Close-up on Final Draw procedures (27 November 2017)FIFA.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018. Archived copy. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  3. OC for FIFA Competitions approves procedures for the Final Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup (14 September 2017)FIFA.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018. Archived copy. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  4. 4.0 4.1 FIFA.com. The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking - October 2017 - FIFA.com (in en-GB). FIFA.com. Retrieved 16 October 2017. Archived copy. Retrieved 27 December 2021.