The delayed European Championships are still more than six months away, but that doesn’t stop the World Cup qualifying draw going forward today.
The tournament will be held in Qatar between November and December 2022, but the European qualifiers will start in early March next year, ending three months later at the end of Euro 2020.
England will be one of the top teams, meaning they will not be able to play like world champions France, current European champions Portugal or world number one Belgium.
However, they could lead the other two Home Nations parties.
Monday’s qualifying round draw will feature 55 UEFA national teams, but in the 2022 tournament it will only make 13.
Here’s what you need to know about the draw.
How much is the World Cup qualifying draw?
The qualifying draw for the 2022 World Cup will begin at 5pm on Monday.
The ceremony will be held at FIFA’s Swiss headquarters in Zurich and will be a virtual event to prevent representatives of participating countries from attending in person due to the Kovid travel restrictions.
To see how to draw
(Photo: Dean Mohtoroplos)
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England fans can learn from their team’s opponents by watching draws through a number of websites, including BBC Sport, FIFA or UEFA.
Mirror will also cover the draw through its live blog.
How the draw works
All 55 countries will be divided into 10 groups. Half of them (groups A to E) will be made up of five teams while F to J groups will have six teams.
The four Nations League semi-finalists (Belgium, France, Italy and Spain) will advance to the five-team group, with the other group at the top receiving the rest of the group between A and E.
The groups will then consist of one team from each pot. These utensils are:
(Photo: AFP / Getty)
Pot 1: Belgium, France, England , Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands
Pot 2: Switzerland, nd, Wales , Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Russia, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, In Northern Ireland , Iceland, Scotland , Greece, Finland
Pot 4: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Belarus, Georgia, Luxembourg
Pot 5: Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Latvia, Andorra
Pot 6: Malta, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar, San Marino
When is the World Cup qualifier?
The qualifiers will be played over a 12-month period starting in March next year before the final group games in November and the play-ss in March 2022.
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