Everything You Need To Know About The 2014 World Cup Draw

So first of all lets cover the absolute basics:

When: Friday 6th of December, 16:30 GMT

Where: Costa do Sauipe, Bahia, Brazil

Live: On BBC2 and online, as well as Sky Sports News

Pots For the World Cup Draw

Pot 1 (Top Seeds) - Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland

Pot 2 - Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ecuador

Pot 3 - Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras

Pot 4- England, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Croatia, Netherlands, France, Greece, Bosnia-Hercegovina

England's Draw

Now here is where things get a little more complicated. You will notice that Pot 2 only has 7 teams, where as pot 4 has 9. Which means one of the European teams in Pot 4 will be moved to Pot 2. The team moved to pot 2 will be completely random. Many expected the lowest seeded team in pot 4 to move (France) but for some reason that hasn't happened. So every single team in pot 4 has a 1 in 9 chance of moving to pot 2 come Friday.

Obviously nobody in Pot 4 will want to move over to Pot 2 as that increases their chances of a tough group. For example, the European team moved to Pot 2 will definitely face a South American top seed, so Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay, and you don't really want to face a South American top seed when the tournament is being held in South America. So for example, England if moved to Pot 2, could end up with a draw of Brazil, United States and Italy, and that would be a real group of death if ever I did see one. However of course they could also draw Colombia, Honduras and Bosnia-Hercegovina, but looking at the pots, the chances are it would be a tougher group.

If they remain in Pot 4 they can face any of the 8 seeded teams. So for example they could land Germany, United States and Chile. Terrible Draw! Or they could land Switzerland, Algeria and Honduras, a much better draw.

Pot X

So what is this all about? basically no more than two European teams can be in the same group. So when they move a European team to Pot 2, they need to ensure that they face one of the seeded South American teams. As if we just moved say England to Pot 2, they could be drawn against Spain and then France, making three European teams in one group. So FIFA will put Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia into Pot X, and then one of those teams will be drawn to face the European team moved to Pot 2, this ensures that no more than 2 European teams are in the same draw. Simples.

Location, Location, Location

This is a major factor in this years World Cup draw. Roy Hodgson did allude to it this week stating he was more concerned about where the team would be based and where the games would be held than the opponents we would be playing and that's perfectly understandable.

Brazil stretches over a great distance, meaning that the weather fluctuates from being quite tropical in the North (close to the equator) and quite cool in the south. So Fortaleza in the North will be more suited to South American teams because of the heat, but Sao Paulo in the South will suit European teams with it's cooler climate.

So where do we want to get drawn? simply put in group H or group B. All group games in group H will avoid the North East heat and the distance travelled will be significantly less than other groups.

Group G is a group that we would want to avoid, with all of its games being played in the North of the country, where ice baths may be required on the substitutes bench just to avoid heat stroke. If we are drawn in Group G and make it to the knock-out stages, we'd have to travel all the way down south to the cooler climate for the first knock-out.

Enjoy the draw, we'll be able to really break it down from Friday onwards, when we know where we will be playing, and who we will be playing.