What could the World Cup draw have in store for Scotland?

The Scotland team have signed off for the international break after friendly draws with Poland and Austria extended the team’s unbeaten run to eight games.

Attention won’t shift entirely back to club football just yet though, with one event set to offer a tantalising glimpse of what lies in store if the team enjoys success in the months to come.

FIFA will hold the draw for the Qatar World Cup on Friday and the ceremony in Doha will reveal which of the world’s top sides will await Steve Clarke’s side if they can come through the play-off.

The team’s fate should already be known, but the semi-final match against Ukraine that was meant to take place last week was understandably postponed after the Russian invasion. A new date has yet to be set for the match, and the winner’s play-off final against Wales, but FIFA are going ahead with the draw using a placeholder for the successful team.

The governing body have confirmed the draw procedures for the event, which takes place on Friday at 5pm UK time.

Next stop: #FinalDraw

Discover the groups on 1 April#FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/w6EdQFa0WL
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) March 31, 2022

All 29 qualified teams, the UEFA play-off winner, and the two intercontinental play-off winners are to be split into four pots based on the most recent world ranking position.

With no fixed ranking to work from for the play-off teams, they will be automatically put in the the lowest seeding group: pot four.

FIFA will put hosts Qatar, plus the seven top-ranked teams (currently Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, England, France, Portugal, and Spain) into separate groups and then add one team from each seeding pot to each group.

The draw will be organised to make sure that teams from the same qualifications zone can’t be drawn against each other, with the exception of the 13 European teams. Five of the eight groups will have two European teams.

Unlike in previous World Cup draws, the venues, dates and times for the group games won’t be confirmed until some time after the draw.

World Cup 2022 teams so far

Brazil (1st in the world rankings, CONMEBOL league winners)

Belgium (Ranked 2nd, qualified as UEFA group winners)

France (Ranked 3rd, UEFA group winners)

Argentina (Ranked 4th, CONMEBOL runners-up)

England (Ranked 5th, UEFA group winners)

Spain (Ranked 7th, UEFA group winners)

Portugal (Ranked 8th, UEFA play-off winners)

Mexico (Ranked 9th, CONCACAF third round qualifier)

Netherlands (Ranked 10th, UEFA group winners)

Denmark (Ranked 11th, UEFA group winners)