Preliminary draw for 2018 FIFA World Cup held in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg has hosted the draw ceremony for the qualifying stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which is to take place in Russia.

The start was made by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Head of FIFA Joseph Blatter.

"Russia will increase the popularity and extend the geography of football. I think the members of the FIFA Executive Committee took this into account when choosing the country for 2018. This will raise the interest in football not only in Russia, but also in a large number of our neighbors," Vladimir Putin expressed confidence.

The Russian President assured that Russia will make every effort to ensure safety during the World Cup. "For us it is essential that we have create decent conditions for the teams so that they could fully concentrate on the games and display high-quality football. And, of course, we will do everything to ensure safety and maximum comfort for the fans," the President of Russia added.

The drawing started with the zone of Africa. In the first round of the qualifying stage of the championship the following countries will play against each other: Somalia and Niger, South Sudan and Mauritania, Gambia and Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, Ethiopia and Chad, Sierra Leone, Comoros and Lesotho, Djibouti and Swaziland. The winners of these pairs in the second round will encounter Cameroon, Tunisia, Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Cape Verde and Algeria, all nations which won the the second round. The winners of the pairs of Sudan, Zambia, Libya, Rwanda, Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mozambique, Benin, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Angola, Togo and South Africa in the third and final qualifying round will be divided into groups of four teams.

Then came the turn of the CONCACAF zone (North and Central America). It began immediately with the draw of the third round, as the first two had already been played. The following teams will play against each other: Curacao and El Salvador, Belize and Canada, Grenada and Haiti, Jamaica and Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Aruba and Antigua and Barbuda and Guatemala. The fourth round will be a group round.  Group A includes Mexico, Honduras, and the winners of the first and second pairs of the third round;  Group B – Costa Rica, Panama, and the winners of the third and fourth pairs of the third round; Group C – the United States, Trinidad and Tobago and the winners of the fifth and sixth pairs of the third round. Six teams in their group will be in the group stages, where they will play against each other in the same group.

In the zone of ​​the Pacific in the first round of the group stage will meet the teams of American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga Islands range. In the third round in Group A will play Tahiti, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and the winner of the first round;  Group B – New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu.

In the zone of ​​South America ten teams will compete - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Ecuador.

The second qualifying round is in full swing in the zone of ​​Asia, that is why the representatives of this zone of the world did not participate in the draw.

There were nine groups in the UEFA zone: A – Luxembourg, Belarus, Bulgaria, Sweden, France, Switzerland; B – Andorra, Latvia, the Faroe Islands, Hungary, Switzerland, Portugal; C – San Marino, Azerbaijan, Norway, Northern Ireland, Czech Republic, Germany; D – Georgia, Moldova, Republic of Ireland, Serbia, Wales, Austria; E – Kazakhstan, Armenia, Montenegro, Poland, Denmark, Romania; F – Malta, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Scotland, England; G – Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Israel, Albania, Italy, Spain; H – Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium; I – Finland, Turkey, Ukraine, Iceland, Croatia.