World Cup draw LIVE: England face USA, Iran and possibly Wales or Scotland at Qatar 2022

Around 10 minutes to go until the World Cup draw.

Qatar is the first country in the Middle East to be awarded the World Cup. It’s also the smallest nation to host the tournament and the first to have the competition be played over the winter months with the World Cup taking place across November and December this year.

Who’s in which pot?

Pot 1 (seeded teams): Qatar, Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal.

Pot 2: Mexico, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, USA, Croatia.

Pot 3: Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, South Korea, Tunisia.

Pot 4: Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Wales/Scotland/Ukraine, Costa Rica/New Zealand, UAE/Australia/Peru.

Gareth Southgate has arrived at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center ahead of tonight’s draw. Who will end up in England’s group?

England boss Gareth Southgate says England can win the World Cup if they get to the final. We’ll find out how hard that should be soon as the group stage draw gets underway.

He said: “We have said to the team this week, ‘if we can get to a semi-final, we can get to a final, and we did. If we can get to a final, we can win’. That’s clear.

“To do that is incredibly difficult and we’ll have to be as close to perfect as can be.

“That’s the challenge for us, not just when we get to Qatar, because we’ve got to be in the right condition, even before that. That’s what we’ve got to work towards every day we’re together.”

Idris Elba and Reshmin Chowdhury are the hosts for this evening’s draw.

The stage is set.

How to watch the World Cup draw?

The draw for the group stages will be held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center and it is due to start at 5pm.

Viewers in the UK can watch live coverage of the World Cup draw on BBC One, with coverage due to begin at 4.45pm. It will also be available to stream via the BBC iPlayer or BBC Sport website.

Alternatively, Sky Sports will also be showing the proceedings live on their Premier League and Football channels. Coverage begins at 5pm, and subscribers can also watch on Sky Go.

How will the World Cup draw work?

England will discover their group stage opponents for the World Cup in Qatar this evening, with Germany or Croatia potentially standing in the Three Lions’ way early on.

Gareth Southgate’s men are in the top pot of seeds for the draw in Doha on Friday and will be drawn against come potentially difficult opponents in pot two. Any of Germany, Croatia, Mexico, Denmark and the Netherlands could end up in England’s group.

The pots will be emptied from one to four, with each team assigned to a group and given a number between one and four within that group. Hosts Qatar have already been assigned Group A and position one, and will play in the tournament’s opening game on November 21st.

Except for Europe, whenever possible FIFA will avoid drawing two sides from the same confederation together.

The allocation of venues and kick-off times will take place after the draw, with the final schedule not expected to be known until Saturday.

Elsewhere Scotland, Wales and Ukraine are treated as a single placeholder in the bottom pot of seeds, with the outcome of their play-off path not set to be decided until June following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It was a moment, in its own way, as electric as anything that has been happening in the World Cup play-offs. That was when Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness forced everyone at Fifa Congress in Doha to confront the true cost of these games.

“In 2010, World Cups were awarded in unacceptable ways with unacceptable consequences,” she said in an impassioned call for inclusion and human rights. “The migrant workers injured, the families of those that died, must be cared for.”

Many in the room didn’t care for the discussion.

One federation head, clearly looking for his own 15 minutes of approval from the football family, insisted she should not have said that. That, apparently, is not the point. The point is all the World Cup livery, the sense of occasion in Doha.

Shortly afterwards, a package was shown with great moments from previous World Cups, the emotion echoed by that seen in Senegal, Algeria and the United States in the last few days.

That is what the World Cup is supposed to mean. That is what sportswashing projects are actually playing on.