FIFA World Cup final draw

The first event of the FIFA World Cup starts with a kind of lottery but instead of selecting classified numbers, in this contest a country is selected; most had been made in January of the tournament year until 1982 and since the 1986 World Cup it is held in early December of the year before the start of the tournament.

History[]

The first version of the draw had been made in a football association's office, a few days before the 1930 World Cup; it was also repeated in 1934. Five of these have been held in hotel ballrooms; the 1950 draw was conducted in the office of a government agency. The 1958 draw was the first to be held in a television studio. The 1986 draw was notable as it was held less than two months after an earthquake struck the host nation's capital. A party was held a few hours before the 1998 draw which was the first to be performed in a stadium that hosted the tournament. The first draw that involved celebrity guests such as musical artists was held for the first time in 1990, a practice maintained until now.^[1] It was also held in a city that would not host the tournament like the one in 1994 that was developed in Las Vegas.

Previous draws[]

FIFA World Cup	City	Location	Date
Uruguay 1930	Montevideo	Uruguayan Football Association	10 July 1930
Italy 1934	Rome	Ambasciatori Palace Hotel	1 May 1934
France 1938	Paris	Salon d'Horloge	5 March 1938
Brazil 1950	Río de Janeiro	Itamaraty Palace	22 May 1950
Switzerland 1954	Zurich	Saint Gotthard Hotel	30 November 1953
Sweden 1958	Stockholm	Cirkus Television Studios	8 February 1958
Chile 1962	Santiago de Chile	Carrera Hotel	18 January 1962
England 1966	London	Royal Garden Hotel	6 January 1966
Mexico 1970	Mexico City	Maria Isabel Sheraton Hotel	10 January 1970
West Germany 1974	Frankfurt	Radio für Hessen Salon	5 January 1974
Argentina 1978	Buenos Aires	The General San Martín Cultural Centre	14 January 1978
Spain 1982	Madrid	Madrid Congress Palace	16 January 1982
Mexico 1986	Mexico City	Televisa San Ángel	15 December 1985
Italy 1990	Rome	Palazzo dello Sport	9 December 1989
United States 1994	Las Vegas	Las Vegas Convention Center	19 December 1993
France 1998	Marseille	Stade Vélodrome	4 December 1997
South Korea/Japan 2002	Busan	BEXCO	1 December 2001
Germany 2006	Leipzig	Leipzig Trade Fair	9 December 2005
South Africa 2010	Cape Town	CTICC	4 December 2009
Brazil 2014	Salvador	Costa do Sauípe Resort	6 December 2013
Russia 2018	Moscow	State Kremlin Palace	1 December 2017
Qatar 2022	Doha		1 April 2022

Teams in the groups[]

The following table shows the times a country has been part of the World Cup groups.

Updated to include Russia 2018

Team	Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Algeria		1	1	1				1
Angola				1
Argentina	4	3	1	3		2		1
Australia	1	1	1	1		1
Austria	1	2	1	1
Belgium	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	2
Bolivia		1	1	1
Bosnia and Herzegovina						1
Brazil	4	3	6	2	1	2	1
Bulgaria	1		2	3
Cameroon	2	3			2
Canada			1
Chile	2	5		1				1
China PR			1
Colombia	2		1	1			1	1
Costa Rica	1		2	1	1
Croatia	1			1		1	1	1
Czech Republic^[2]	2		3	1	1
Denmark	1		2		2
DR Congo^[3]		1
Ecuador	1				1		1
Egypt	1					1
El Salvador	1		1
England	1	2	2	4	1	2	2
France	6	1	3	1	1		1
Germany^[4]	4	5	1	3	2	2	1
Ghana				1	1		1
Greece		1	1	1
Haiti				1
Honduras					2			1
Hungary	1	1	4
Iceland				1
Iran		1		2		2
Iraq		1
Israel		1
Italy	4	3	1	4	2	1	1
Ivory Coast			1				1
Jamaica								1
Japan			1		1			3
Kuwait				1
Mexico	7	2	2	1	2	1	1
Morocco	1	1		1		2
Netherlands		1	2	1	2	2
New Zealand						2
Nigeria		1		3		2
North Korea				1			1
Northern Ireland	1			1	1
Norway	1				1
Panama							1
Paraguay		4	1	2		1
Peru	1		2	2
Poland	2	1		2		1		1
Portugal		1	1	2		1	2
Republic of Ireland					2	1
Romania	1	1	2				1
Russia^[5]	3	2	1	2		1		2
Saudi Arabia	1		1		1	1		1
Scotland	1	2	2	1	1	1
Senegal	1							1
Serbia^[6]	3	3	1	2	2	1
Slovakia						1
Slovenia		1	1
South Africa	1	1	1
South Korea	1	2	1	1	2	1	1	1
Spain		5	3	2	2			2
Sweden		3	5			2
Switzerland	2	2		1	2		1	1
Togo							1
Trinidad and Tobago		1
Tunisia		1					2	2
Turkey		1	1
Ukraine								1
United Arab Emirates				1
United States	2	1	1	2	1	1	1
Uruguay	5	1	3	2	2
Wales			1

Belgium and South Korea are the two countries that have been in all groups.
This table does not contain the participations of the countries in the World Cups of Italy 1934 and France 1938, and these editions have not been grouped for the tournament.

Draw criticism[]

The current format of the draw has been criticized for lacking balance, fairness and equal distribution of quality. A study in the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports suggested that while the current model does ensure Randomness, Tractability, and Geographic separation, it "fails to satisfy the principle of balance".^[7] Under the study's proposed draw model, based on over 40,000 simulations of the 2014 draw, the model exhibited a much more balanced group and much less variation in the strength of the groups when compared to the current system utilized by FIFA.

References[]

^ "History of the World Cup final draw" (PDF). fifa.com. n.d. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2008.
^ Includes the shares of the team of Czechoslovakia
^ Includes the shares of the team of Zaire
^ Includes the shares of the team of West Germany
^ Includes the shares of the team of Soviet Union
^ Includes the shares of the team of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro
^ "Rethinking the FIFA World Cup™ final draw". Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. 2015.

External links[]

[1] "History of the World Cup final draw" (PDF). fifa.com. n.d. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2008.

[Czech_Republic-2] Includes the shares of the team of Czechoslovakia

[DR_Congo-3] Includes the shares of the team of Zaire

[Germany-4] Includes the shares of the team of West Germany

[Russia-5] Includes the shares of the team of Soviet Union

[Serbia-6] Includes the shares of the team of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro

[7] "Rethinking the FIFA World Cup™ final draw". Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. 2015.

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v t FIFA World Cup
Tournaments	Uruguay 1930 Italy 1934 France 1938 Brazil 1950 Switzerland 1954 Sweden 1958 Chile 1962 England 1966 Mexico 1970 West Germany 1974 Argentina 1978 Spain 1982 Mexico 1986 Italy 1990 United States 1994 France 1998 South Korea–Japan 2002 Germany 2006 South Africa 2010 Brazil 2014 Russia 2018 Qatar 2022 Canada–Mexico–United States 2026 2030 2034
Qualification	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Finals	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Squads	1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Final draw	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Broadcasters	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Bids	2014 2018 and 2022 2026 2030
Statistics	2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Team appearances	AFC CAF CONCACAF CONMEBOL OFC UEFA
Overall records	All-time table Goalscorers top goalscorers finals goalscorers hat-tricks own goals Managers Opening matches Penalty shoot-outs Player appearances Red cards Referees Winning players Winning managers
Miscellaneous	Awards Balls Controversies Economics Fan fest Films History Mascots Music Notable matches qualifying Organisers Stadiums Final stadiums Trophy Video games World Champions Cup
Notes: There was no qualification for the 1930 World Cup as places were given by invitation only. In 1950, there was no final; the article is about the decisive match of the final group stage.