All 32 teams taking part in the 2014 FIFA World Cup will find out their fate as the draw for next summer’s Brazilian carnival of football takes place this Friday on BBC Two and Sky Sports.
Set amongst sand dunes, palm trees, lagoons and lying adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, the Costa do Sauipe resort in the Brazilian state of Bahia provides an idyllic setting for the eagerly-anticipated final draw as the world counts down to next year’s showpiece in the spiritual home of the beautiful game.
Next summer’s tournament will be the 20th staging of the greatest footballing show on earth and the first to take place in Brazil since 1950, when the host nation lost to Uruguay in the final.
With each team finding out who their adversaries will be in the group stages, it will be a time not only for coaches and players but for the millions of anxious fans from all corners of the world to start the guesswork, fill in the tables, and dream of World Cup glory.
Roy Hodgson and his England side will be hoping to avoid an unkind draw against the elite of international football as they look to make progress through the group stage.
England had a few nervous moments during qualification but Hodgson’s team in the end safely booked their place on the plane to Brazil.
However, they were not named among the top eight seeds for the competition, so are already guaranteed to face one of the teams in the top pot of seeds which includes heavyweights such as Brazil, Spain, Germany and Argentina.
Host nation Brazil are perhaps understandably favourites after they won the Confederations Cup on home soil earlier this summer, but reigning World and European champions Spain, Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Germany will also be in with a strong shout.
Millions of football fans around the world will be glued to their television sets to find out who plays who in the group stages of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
As with all major tournament draws in the modern era, the FIFA World Cup group stage draw forms part of a wider spectacle featuring a distinctive range of Brazilian music and entertainment, which the organisers have promised will feature a “whole host of Brazil’s diverse visual and acoustic treats”.
Local actors and TV personalities Fernanda Lima and Rodrigo Hilbert have been tasked with hosting the final draw ceremony, which is expected to last around 90 minutes, with the draw itself taking around 40 minutes to complete.
They will introduce a variety of famous names representing the diversity and quality of Brazilian culture and music, including Emicida, Alcione, Margareth Menezes and the percussion group Olodum.
Then it will be time for the main event itself as FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke takes to the stage to conduct the group stage draw, ably assisted by a host of legendary names from the world of football.
The likes of Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Mario Kempes, Lothar Matthäus, Zinedine Zidane and Sir Geoff Hurst have all be rumoured to be involved in the draw process.
FIFA has announced a change to its usual draw procedure which will see one of the nine unseeded European teams, including England, placed in Pot Two along with Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Ghana and Nigeria.
If England were selected for that pot, it would mean Hodgson’s men would be in the same group as a seeded South American side such as Brazil and Argentina and would face another of the unseeded European sides, with Holland or Italy among the possibilities.
As expected, the eight seeded teams – hosts Brazil plus the top seven sides according to FIFA’s October world rankings – will be kept apart for the group stage.
The draw will be organised so that there will be no more than two European teams in any group of four countries. All the South American teams will be kept apart.
It means England will have to face one of the top seeds – hosts Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland – who are in Pot One.
Whatever the outcome of the rather complicated proceedings on Friday afternoon (December 6), you can follow all the twists and turns of the 2014 FIFA World Cup draw live on the BBC and Sky Sports.
BBC Sport will screen full coverage of the group stage draw live from the Costa do Sauipe resort.
Gary Lineker presents a special programme on BBC Two and BBC Two HD from 4.30pm as all 32 teams find out who they will facing in the group stage.
Joining the Match of the Day presenter in the studio will be Everton manager Roberto Martinez and former England striker Alan Hansen, while Jonathan Pearce provides commentary on proceedings in Brazil.
Sky Sports will also broadcast coverage of the draw in a special programme simulcast on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports News from 4.00pm.
Glenn Hoddle, Alan Smith and Gaizka Mendieta will join presenter Julian Warren in the Sky Sports studio with reporters Nick Collins and Bryan Swanson providing reaction and interviews from Brazil.
Plus, Sky viewers can follow the draw wherever they are via online and mobile devices with ra rolling live blog.
Online viewers can follow the draw as it happens via the official FIFA website, where live streaming of the entire ceremony will be made available from 16:00 GMT, while BBC 5Live and talkSPORT will broadcast the draw live on radio.
ITV Sport has launched its 2014 World Cup website – itv.com/worldcup – and it will be posting real-time updates on Friday’s draw, plus everything else to do with Brazil 2014 in the build-up to the tournament.
Featuring a sleek responsive design, ITV’s fresh new site works on any device from smartphone to tablet to desktop computer.
The entire nation will be able to savour the unique spectacle of the World Cup in Brazil next summer as the BBC and ITV will be the only places to watch all 64 games live.
Both broadcasters are expected to announce their split of live games in the weeks after the draw is made. The tournament takes place between June 12 and July 13, 2014.
Friday 6th December
Match of the Day: World Cup 2014 Draw
LIVE: 4.30pm-5.45pm BBC Two
World Cup Draw
LIVE: 4.00pm-6.30pm Sky Sports News
HOW THE DRAW WORKS
At the start of the draw, one European team from Pot Four will be selected at random and added to Pot Two to make it eight countries in each pot.
The four seeded South American teams will be put into a temporary pot (Pot X) and the European team from Pot Two drawn in the same group as one of them.
The draw will then proceed with Pot One being emptied and the teams allocated to position one in the Groups A-H in turn.
Pots Three and Four will then be emptied in order but no South American teams can be in the same group, and a maximum of two European teams.
Teams from Pots Two, Three and Four will have their positions in the group drawn randomly.
DRAW POTS
Pot One Brazil Spain Germany Argentina Colombia Belgium Uruguay Switzerland Pot Two Ivory Coast Ghana Algeria Nigeria Cameroon Chile Ecuador Pot Three Japan Iran South Korea Australia United States Mexico Costa Rica Honduras Pot Four* Holland Italy England Portugal Greece Bosnia-Herzegovina Croatia Russia France *one country to be selected at random to join pot two).
Why the hell did that annoying idiot Jonathan Pierce talk crap all the way through the draw. Let us listen to it, its not the bloody Eurovision Song Contest for Christ sake