Pot 1 (top eight seeds): Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay

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: Bosnia, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, France

Pot 1 is comprised of host nation Brazil and the seven top-ranked teams from FIFA’s October rankings. These will be the headline squads for each group, and those outside it will likely be rooting for a spot alongside Switzerland, or at least to avoid Brazil, Spain, Germany or Argentina.

At the outset, Pot 2 only has seven teams, made up of national teams from Africa and the South American squads not in Pot 1. Eventually, another European team will be drawn into this pot, but there will be a separate “Pot X” created to avoid three teams from UEFA ending up in the same group.

Pot 3 is straightforward. It’s comprised of teams that qualified from the Asian and North American regions, which includes the United States and Mexico. Teams from this pot will need luck in order to avoid a very difficult draw.

Finally, the fourth pot is all of the remaining European teams. Since there are nine sides, it creates an imbalance that will get sorted out when one is drawn into Pot 2. But again, FIFA is going to immediately draw a South American team from “Pot X” and European team together to avoid three UEFA teams ending up together, as explained during the press conference.