The delayed European Championships are still more than six months away, but that’s not stopping the World Cup qualifying draw from going ahead today.
The tournament will be held in Qatar between November and December 2022, but the European qualifiers will be starting as early as March next year, three months before Euro 2020 finally gets underway.
England will be one of the top teams, meaning they can’t play the likes of reigning world champions France, current European champions Portugal, or world number one side Belgium.
They could, however, be drawn against two other Home Nations sides.
Monday’s qualifying round draw will involve 55 UEFA national sides, but only 13 will make it through to the 2022 tournament.
Here’s everything you need to know about the draw.
What time is the World Cup qualifying draw?
The qualifying draw for the 2022 World Cup will start at 5pm on Monday.
The ceremony will be held at FIFA’s Swiss headquarters in Zurich and is set to be a virtual event without representatives from the participating nations attending in person due to Covid travel restrictions.
How to watch the draw
(Image: Dean Mouhtaropoulos)
It has been a hectic season so far – so make sure you don’t miss a single thing by signing up for the brilliant new Mirror Football newsletter!
All the latest transfer news and big stories will land straight into your inbox. You won’t miss out.
To sign up, put your email at the top of this article or follow the instructions on this link.
England fans can learn their team’s opponents by watching the draw through a number of websites including BBC Sport, FIFA or UEFA.
The Mirror will also be covering the draw through its live blog.
How the draw works
All 55 countries will be divided into 10 groups. Half of those (groups A to E) will be made up of five teams while groups F to J will consist of six teams.
The four Nations League semi-finalists (Belgium, France, Italy and Spain) will go into a five-team group, with one other top seed getting the remaining group between A and E.
The groups will then be made up of a team from each pot. The pots are:
(Image: AFP/Getty)
Pot 1: Belgium, France, England , Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands
Pot 2: Switzerland, Wales , Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Russia, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland , Iceland, Scotland , Greece, Finland
Pot 4: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, North 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 are the World Cup qualifiers?
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-offs in March 2022.
