The four pots for the World Cup finals draw will all be allocated based on the FIFA World Ranking, following a decision taken by the Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions, chaired by Aleksander Čeferin.

In previous draws, only Pot 1 has been decided based on strength of team, with the remaining pots put together by grouping Confederations.

But the upcoming draw on December 1 draw will see all 32 teams seeded from the October Ranking, which is published when all regions have completed their regular qualifying programmes before the November playoffs.

Russia will be automatically seeded as hosts and will be joined in Pot 1 by the top seven ranked nations.

Pots 2 to 4 will then be allocated according to the ranking in descending order.

Brazil are guaranteed to be seeded, and will be joined by Germany, Argentina and Portugal if they qualify.

FIFA will, however, continue the principle that no more than one team from a Confederation can be in a group, with the exception of Europe which can have no more than two nations in any one group.

FIFA is also likely to prevent Russia and, should they qualify, Ukraine from being drawn together for political reasons.