The 2018 World Cup draw takes place on Saturday.

[TightEnd]

who do you want?

who do you want to avoid?


First round (group stage): The 52 teams will be divided into nine groups (seven groups of six teams and two groups of five teams) to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The winners of each group will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the eight best runners-up will advance to the second round (play-offs).

Second round (play-offs): The eight best runners-up from the first round will play home-and-away over two legs. The four winners will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

[AndrewT]

Romania/Iceland/Albania/Faroes/Cyprus/Andorra could be a group - mad lolz there.

[JohnCharver]

Them pots could stuff someone, you end up with turkey then france/italy even czech then poland/ukraine/sweden gonna be bingo


really need one of the top4 teams in pot 3

range in pot 4 is unreal unfair, ireland/turkey or faroes/estonia

[rinswun]

No Gibraltar?!

[JohnCharver]

No Gibraltar?!

They are recognised by uefa, but not by fifa. Blatter told them no because they arent an independent country (obvious some dodgy spanish connection), considering that england, wales, scotland, NI and FI arent either it was typical tripe.

Know they were trying again, dunno if that has been resolved yet.

Uefa didnt want them either tho, was forced on them after they tried to be dodgy to please the spanish,

[mulhuzz]

Absolute tripe that gib aren't there. FIFA has more than 20 full members who aren't independent nations.

There's an ongoing appeal to CAS who also were the reason they became full uefa members. Appeal was heard in May this year but no timeline for decision and likely going to take years.

Gib will wait though, they only applied to be FIFA members in 1997 so a little longer won't phase them. It's expected that FIFA will have to allow them eventually...

[The Camel]

Wales and Romania ranked above Italy and France? Mad lolz

They should employ bookmakers to provide the rankings.

[JohnCharver]

Wales and Romania ranked above Italy and France? Mad lolz

They should employ bookmakers to provide the rankings.

why? The system is earned points, why shouldnt any nation have the right to earn their ranking?

Everyone knows that certain teams have used the system well eg switz last time. France and italy federations are to blame, unfortunately pool 1 teams may suffer, but the lesson is take every game serious in both choice and result

[david3103]

Wales and Romania ranked above Italy and France? Mad lolz

They should employ bookmakers to provide the rankings.

why? The system is earned points, why shouldnt any nation have the right to earn their ranking?

Everyone knows that certain teams have used the system well eg switz last time. France and italy federations are to blame, unfortunately pool 1 teams may suffer, but the lesson is take every game serious in both choice and result

That's all well and good but misses the point by a country mile.

The current system is flawed, which is why Keith suggested an alternative.

[JohnCharver]

Wales and Romania ranked above Italy and France? Mad lolz

They should employ bookmakers to provide the rankings.

why? The system is earned points, why shouldnt any nation have the right to earn their ranking?

Everyone knows that certain teams have used the system well eg switz last time. France and italy federations are to blame, unfortunately pool 1 teams may suffer, but the lesson is take every game serious in both choice and result

That's all well and good but misses the point by a country mile.

The current system is flawed, which is why Keith suggested an alternative.

Yeah, as flawed as simply handing the biggest teams an easy draw.

[Doobs]

Wales and Romania ranked above Italy and France? Mad lolz

They should employ bookmakers to provide the rankings.

why? The system is earned points, why shouldnt any nation have the right to earn their ranking?

Everyone knows that certain teams have used the system well eg switz last time. France and italy federations are to blame, unfortunately pool 1 teams may suffer, but the lesson is take every game serious in both choice and result

That's all well and good but misses the point by a country mile.

The current system is flawed, which is why Keith suggested an alternative.

The alternative is flawed too.  Bookies aren't holding any prices if enough money is thrown at them.  How much of a war chest could say Russia and Qatar afford to manipulate their rankings?  Not that they have any track record in doing such a thing.

[JohnCharver]

Group A: Netherlands, France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Belarus, Luxembourg

Group B: Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Andorra

Group C: Germany, Czech Republic, NORTHERN IRELAND, Norway, Azerbaijan, San Marino

Group D: WALES, Austria, Serbia, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, Moldova, Georgia

Group E: Romania, Denmark, Poland, Montenegro, Armenia, Kazakhstan

Group F: ENGLAND, Slovakia, SCOTLAND, Slovenia, Lithuania, Malta

Group G: Spain, Italy, Albania, Israel, Macedonia, Liechtenstein

Group H: Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Estonia, Cyprus

Group I: Croatia, Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland.

[arbboy]

Couple of excuses to return to Malta for the England/Jock games as a 50/50 english/jock!  Sure Celtic will be up for the jock game!  Tough to have a better group for the english/jock fans if you like going to places where there are loads of fit birds!  (obviously the road trip to Glasgow is the exception for the english fans!  
  
ps - what a draw wales have got.

[Ironside]

i like the scotland group yeah we will be playing for 2nd behind englandshire and a hopeful play off place but groups A,C and G would of been horrid

[celtic]

Great draw for me. Never been to a scotchland game. Might have to when Malta come.

Fk knows how Eso is gonna decide who he wants to win from Malta, England & Slovakia.