Mark Atkinson talks through Scotland's World Cup draw permutations

The Scotsman

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00:00Hello, I'm Mark Atkinson, the Scotsman Sports Editor and I'm here today to talk you through

00:07Scotland's World Cup qualifying draw and how it works. We will find out on Friday who Steve

00:13Clarke and the boys will face on their path to the 2026 World Cup, which is of course

00:19being held that year in USA, Canada and Mexico. Scotland haven't been in the World Cup since

00:261998, but having qualified for back-to-back European Championships under Clarke, there's

00:32renewed optimism that Scotland could end that long wait to be at the, well really the most

00:37glamorous football event on the planet. Scotland are a top three team in the World Cup draw,

00:43slightly disappointing given that we finished the campaign on a high by beating Croatia

00:47and Poland. In fact, there was a permutation in that final set of pictures where Scotland

00:52were a pot one team very briefly, but as it is, we're in the middle ranks and that

00:57means that there's the potential for a really difficult draw, but also the potential for

01:01a kinder set of fixtures. So how does it work? The draw takes place in the Swiss city of

01:08Zurich, UEFA HQ on Friday, starting at 11am GMT. We have 54 eligible UEFA nations split

01:18into five pots. Pot one includes all the big dogs, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, all the teams

01:25like France that you probably don't want to face. Then you have pot two, plenty of good teams in

01:30there, plenty of beatable nations as well. Pot three is where Scotland are actually top of the

01:35seats in pot three. Then pot four, where most teams you think Scotland could win, and then pot five.

01:42Scotland could be drawn in a group of four or a group of five. That will depend on who the pot

01:47one team is because there are certain teams in pot one that are in the Nations League finals

01:52and therefore they aren't able to play fixtures in the month of June. The draw will take place

02:01as a standard. It'll be broadcast, there'll be some fanfare, no doubt, some FIFA and UEFA dignitaries

02:06talking and it'll be pot one teams, pot two teams, pot three teams, pot four teams and pot five teams.

02:12All the ties take place in 2025 with game weeks spread across March, June, September, October

02:21and November. The team that finishes top of the group qualifies automatically for the World Cup.

02:27The teams that finish second, they'll go into the playoffs which take place in March 2026.

02:34Having had a look at the pots and potentially who Scotland might want to face, well let's have a

02:39quick look through. Pot one, that's France, Spain, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy,

02:44Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria. Well the Scotsman sports right is going to be chat

02:49and we've gone well we really want to avoid someone like Germany or Spain but Austria and

02:54Switzerland aren't too scary. That possibly would be your best bet. Pot two, Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey,

02:59Wales, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Greece, Slovakia, Czechia and Norway. Plenty of good teams

03:06in there. I think Sweden stand out as the one to avoid but Scotland if I could result against Poland

03:11of late and also Norway, would they be potential opponents? Could we get Wales in a Battle of

03:16Britain type match? Pot three, well Scotland can't face any of those teams. Pot four, the top team,

03:23Bulgaria, they could be tricky but after that Luxembourg, Belarus, Kosovo, Armenia, Kazakhstan,

03:28Azerbaijan, Estonia, Cyprus, Lithuania, probably more beatable and then pot five, Moldova, Malta,

03:37Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino. Essentially the minnows of the qualification.

03:41You'd expect Scotland to win both of those matches should they get them. So we'll find out by Friday

03:49lunchtime who Scotland have got in the World Cup draw and then the fixtures are due to be announced

03:54and reliably informed by UEFA hopefully around 5pm GMT. So by the weekend you'll know who Scotland

04:00are playing and exactly where and when. Really exciting 2025 for Scotland. Nations League playoff

04:08then we've got the big one, the World Cup draw thereafter. So let's hope we can take care of

04:12Greece in that playoff match and then kick into the World Cup qualifiers with some optimism. We'll

04:18have all the news, reaction and analysis on scotland.com after the draw has taken place.

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