Spain, seeded in the draw for the Qatar World Cup

Spain will be included this Monday in Zurich as one of the ten seeds european in hype 1 of the draw of classification of the FIFA for Qatar 2022 along with Belgium, France, Portugal, England, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The Selection, like the others three finalists of the Nations League (Belgium, France and Italy), will go to a group of five teams. The draw will be held in the afternoon today, December 7th, in Zurich. The event, without the public or the presence of delegations or selectors as a result of the pandemic, it will be telematic and will be led by the FIFA director of competitions, Jaime Yarza, which will have the help of two former global champions: From Rossi and the ex-madridista Rafa van der Vaart. The qualifying phase will be played between March and November 2021.

At draw will enter 55 teams, one more (Kosovo) that in the phase of classification for the last World Cup, Russia 2018. The top ten selections of each of the groups UEFA qualifying will achieve place for Qatar 2022 directly. The other three seats in the very complicated European phase they will come out of the play-off. The top ten countries finishing second in their qualifying groups will join the two Nations League group leaders who have failed to qualify through the regular qualifying round, regardless of which division they competed in. That give a chance to minor selections, which with another system would have practically impossible to go to a World Cup. For this reason, almost half of the 55 European federations have never been able to play a World Cup final phase. In this way, these twelve teams (the second ten plus the two from the Nations League) will make up a first play-off round in which six teams will remain. Those who win will play a second round from which the other three European teams will go to Qatar 2022 along with the ten champions of each group, totaling the thirteen places that Europe has assigned.

Despite so much difficulty, Spain has only missed five from 21 editions that are disputed of the World Cup, the last one in 1974, almost 45 years ago. The National Team has been fixed continuously in the great football event since 1978. In addition, La Roja has not lost a match in the last six previous phases of the World Cup. Spain's last defeat in a qualifying match was almost 30 years ago, on March 31, 1993 (1-0) against Denmark. Since then, The Red chain 63 games without knowing the defeat.

Geopolitical conflicts will condition the draw, which will have restrictions. They will not be able to share a group Armenia and Azerbaijan, as neither Ukraine with Russia neither Spain with Gibraltar. Kosovo, recognized as a country by UEFA, will not be able to coincide with Bosnia, Russia or Serbia. In addition to policies, also there will be weather restrictions. In order to reduce the risk of having to suspend matches due to winter weather inclement weather, only a maximum of two of the following countries may coincide in a group: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Ukraine. There will also be a restriction for long-term trips, in 20 possible pairings in which groups have to travel to Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan or Iceland. Also, there can only be one Nations League finalist in each of the five-team pools.

Until now, the starting signal for each World Cup was a great day at FIFA, but the pandemic will force the national team to be unable to attend this time. There will be no press conferences either. Luis Enrique will give his impressions through the Federation's social networks. To listen to the coach live again, we will have to wait until next year, in the first three matches of Spain in his group, in March 2021.

The draw on December 7 will be held virtually in Zurich at 6:00 p.m. (CET)

Pot 1: France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Pot 2: Switzerland, Wales, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Slovakia and Romania.

Pot 3: Russia, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, Greece and Finland.

Pot 4: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Israel, Belarus, Georgia and Luxembourg.

Pot 5: Armenia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia and Andorra.

Pot 6: Malta, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and San Marino (these teams will occupy the sixth position in groups F to J).