FIFA World Cup pot allocation announcement results, and draw explained
By Mike Dyce
Oct 15, 2013; Panama City, Panama; United States player Sacha Kljestan carries the ball during the second half of their 3-2 win over Panama at Estadio Rommel Fernandez. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
FIFA held a press conference from Costa do Sauipe, Brazil today to announce the pot allocation of the World Cup pots. At the conference they divided teams into four pots of eight teams.
The idea is to load pots with teams from one conference to prevent them from playing teams they compete with regularly with in the World Cup group stage. For instance, all of CONCACAF will be in one pot so when drawing the groups, they’d pick a team from each of the other three pots. Since all of CONCACAF is in one pot, the United States couldn’t wind up facing Mexico in World Cup group play.
It was interesting because the pots will initially have eight teams, with the exception of pots two and four. Pot two will have seven teams while pot four will have the nine European teams not seeded in pot one.
At the draw, they will pick a team from pot four and move it into pot two. They will then take that European team that was moved to pot two and allow them to pick a team from “pot X.” That pot will contain the non-European teams in pot one, and then they’ll pick from pots three and four. That is an effort to prevent three European teams from ending up in one group.
Once that is settled, they will then isolate the two South American teams in “pot two,” Chile and Ecuador, and do the same thing they did with that lone European team in pot two. They will make a “pot X” of the European teams in pot one and pick the groups that way to prevent two South American teams from winding up in the same group.
Here are the results below.
POT 1:
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Colombia
- Uruguay
- Belgium
- Germany
- Spain
- Switzerland
POT 2:
- Algeria
- Cameroon
- Ivory Coast
- Ghana
- Nigeria
- Chile
- Ecuador
POT 3:
- Australia
- Iran
- Japan
- Korea Republic
- Costa Rica
- Honduras
- Mexico
- USA
POT 4:
- Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Croatia
- England
- France
- Greece
- Portugal
- Italy
- Netherlands
- Russia
[UPDATE:]
DRAW PROCEDURES (from FIFA.com)
1.In order to create an even flow to the draw as Pots 1-4 are emptied, we begin by drawing one ball from Pot 4 (containing a European team) and placing it into Pot 2 to achieve an equal balance of eight teams in each pot
2.Pot 1 will then be emptied beginning with Brazil; teams will be allocated to position 1 of Groups A through H sequentially
3.With the addition of the European team to Pot 2, Pot 2 will contain teams from three different qualification zones. With teams from three zones in the same pot, we increase the risk of inadvertently violating the principle of geographic separation. In order to ensure we do not mistakenly end up with three European teams in the same Group, the following mechanism will be implemented:
– The four seeded South American teams will be placed in an ancillary pot – Pot X
– One of the four teams will be drawn
– The Group of the South American which is drawn will determine the Group which the European team from Pot 2 will join Final Draw Procedures
4.Pot 2 will then be emptied, beginning with the European ball:
– The European team will join Group of South American team drawn from Pot X
– The remaining teams will be allocated to Groups A through H sequentially
(Note: Groups may be skipped to respect principle of geographic separation; e.g. Chile and Ecuador may not be drawn into Groups with seeded South American teams)
5.Pots 3 and 4 will then be emptied in order
6.The positions within Groups A through H will be drawn for all teams of Pots 2, 3 and 4.