The top 8 qualifiers for the finals are seeded, so Kuwait’s dramatic group victory has cost China the chance to be a top seed. Uruguay’s failure to make the finals ensures that all top seeds are from Europe.
So, onto the draw. We’ll be keeping the format as the draw made for the real World Cup; that is, teams are placed in pots dependent on their ranks. When the draw is made, no two countries from the same continent can be in the same group – with the exception of Europe, which can have up to two teams in the same group. The four pots are as follows:
- Pot 1: Germany, Portugal, Italy, England, Greece, France, Spain, Netherlands
- Pot 2: China, Mexico, USA, Argentina, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, Brazil
- Pot 3: Chile, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Colombia, Denmark, Tunisia, Morocco
- Pot 4: DR Congo, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad & Tobago, Mali, Venezuela, Kuwait, Ghana
As well as being drawn into groups, teams are also placed in position 1, 2, 3 or 4. The group seeds are always in the 1st position and that team plays the other three teams in ascending order (with the two remaining sides playing in the same round). So the order of fixtures for any group is:
- Matchday 1: Team 1 vs. Team 2; Team 3 vs. Team 4
- Matchday 2: Team 1 vs. Team 3; Team 4 vs. Team 2
- Matchday 3: Team 4 vs. Team 1; Team 2 vs. Team 3
As the Draft World Cup has no hosts (aside from my PC, I guess – but we can’t have every World Cup set in Fife, our buses are crap!), reigning champions Germany are placed into the A1 position. The rest of the draw is as follows:
Each side must name a squad of 23 players, including 3 goalkeepers. Players are eligible for the nation where they play their football. In the case of loan players, they are eligible for their parent club’s nation. If a club plays in a foreign league (Swansea, Toronto, etc...) then their players are eligible for the nation of the league rather than the club. I am minded to change these latter two rules for next year’s DWC, but for now they stay.
Squads are based on FM’s 18.3.0 update, in case there are any quibbles about a players’ club. Unlike last year’s DWC, there is no squad value limit, nor is there a minimum limit on the number of players of that nationality (e.g. China no longer have to include 8 Chinese players – much to their relief, I’m sure!).
And finally – the timetable of the Draft World Cup will exactly follow that of the actual World Cup. So on the 14th of June real-life Russia will kick-off against real-life Saudi Arabia, and on the same day I will be posting the update following the Germany vs. Croatia game. Hopefully, this won’t lead to readers becoming World Cupped-out, because I wouldn’t want you to ignore events in Russia!
Next time
Hopefully this has got your appetite whetted for what’s to come. The next eight updates will be a preview and analysis of each group, including listing the players that have made the final squad cuts.