Who Plays: What I'm Learning, World Cup 2018

Amateur Soccer Mom
Jun 20, 2018
2 min read

This year I'm learning more about soccer by watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup games in Russia, which began on June 14, 2018. Here are a few of the basics this amateur soccer mom has uncovered:

WHO GETS TO PLAY?

Thirty two teams will play in the 2018 World Cup. First, Russia automatically qualifies to play since they are the hosting team. For the other 31 teams, qualifying began back in March of 2015 and ended in November of 2017. Each nation qualifies through its respective confederation, which includes confederations for Africa, Europe, Asia, Oceania, South America, and North, Central America and Caribbean. The details on how each confederation qualifies are somewhat complicated, but you can read more about them here.

CAF (Africa) - 5 spots

AFS (Asia) - 5 spots

CONCACAF (North America, Central America and Caribbean) - 3

CONMEBOL (South America) - 5

UEFA (Europe) - 14

OFC (Oceania) - 0

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For a total of 32 teams

Next, on December 1, 2017 there was a World Cup draw held in Russia where teams were seeded by FIFA rankings into four pots. The top seven teams plus Russia went into Pot 1. Then the next best eight went into Pot 2, the next eight into Pot 3, and the last eight into Pot 4.

Here are the draw results in 8 groups. Nations are listed with their FIFA ranking.

Group A

1. Russia (65)

2. Saudi Arabia (63)

3. Egypt (30)

4. Uruguay (17)

Group B

1. Portugal (3)

2. Spain (8)

3. Morocco (48)

4. Iran (34)

Group C