Dummies guide to the World Cup 2014 draw in Brazil

It’s been made to sound complicated, but in fact it’s not. The draw for the FIFA 2014 World Cup happens tonight in Brazil — and yes, it is make or break for a lot of teams after a slight tweak in the way the draw will be done — but for most part, it’s going to be just that — a draw with basic procedure. So here’s a quick guide to the draw before you settle in to follow it from 9.30 PM IST onwards [caption id=“attachment_1271177” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The draw for the WC takes place no Friday night. Getty Images[/caption] THE POTS Pot One (seeds): Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay, Switzerland. Pot Two (Africa and unseeded teams from South America): Chile, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon. Pot Three (Asian/Oceania and North, Central American, Caribbean): Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras, United States. Pot Four (unseeded from Europe): Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia. THE MYSTERY AND THE DRAW Eight groups will be drawn with four teams each — one team from every Pot at random. Two things to keep in mind here: seeded teams will not play against each other in the Group stage and no Group will have more than two teams from a particular region. But you may well be scratching your head seeing that there are nine teams in Pot Four and seven in Pot Two. So one pot has an extra team and one has one less. At the start of the draw, to equal up everything — one team from Pot Four will be selected at random and dropped into Pot Two — so now you have eight teams in each group. To keep the geographic segregation in place, this team (the unlucky unseeded European team from Pot Four) will HAVE TO play in a Group which consists either Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay or Colombia. But how do you decide which one? Here’s where Pot X comes into the picture. Pot X is a temporary Pot where Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia will be placed and one team will be drawn. Where will this drawn team go? It’ll go into the Group with that ninth extra unlucky European team. FOR EXAMPLE Let’s suppose England are drawn from Pot Four and put into Pot Two to equal up all the Pots. And then, let’s say, from Pot X Brazil are drawn. That means England will by default go into the group with Brazil. Hope that solves the trouble? If you have any questions or don’t understand the draw, let us know in the comments section