{"id":594099,"date":"2025-11-26T02:46:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/594099\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T02:46:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:46:20","slug":"scotland-dream-and-nightmare-world-cup-draws-as-playoffs-and-special-conditions-affect-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/594099\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland dream and nightmare World Cup draws as playoffs and special conditions affect both"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Clarke’s squad will be in Pot 3 for the draw in Washington DC on Friday 5 December<\/p>\n

18:57, 25 Nov 2025Updated 19:30, 25 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

\"ScotlandScotland celebrate qualifying for the World Cup(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Now that it’s reality, who Scotland will play at the 2026 World Cup<\/a> Finals is a live topic across the country.<\/p>\n

With the Tartan Army just about scraped off their respective ceilings after a night for the ages against Denmark at Hampden, it’s time to look forward to the draw.<\/p>\n

That takes place on Friday December 5 in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

FIFA have confirmed the seedings for the draw<\/a>, with Scotland<\/a> in pot 3.<\/p>\n

The full line up won’t be known until March when the UEFA and Interconfederation playoffs take place.<\/p>\n

12 groups will be drawn with one team from each of the four pots in each.<\/p>\n

One of the special conditions is that two teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn in the same group.<\/p>\n

UEFA<\/a> nations are the exception, given they have 16 qualifying spots making it impossible to keep them apart.<\/p>\n

That means four of the groups will contain two UEFA nations.<\/p>\n

Record Sport<\/strong> has looked at the seedings to try and work out the best and worst case scenarios the draw could throw up.<\/p>\n

Dream draw<\/p>\n

Canada<\/p>\n

Australia<\/p>\n

Scotland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cape Verde<\/p>\n

They are not always the most accurate indicator of how good a team actually is, but to keep it fare, we’re basing this on the FIFA world rankings as they currently stand.<\/p>\n

Co-hosts Canada are the weakest of the top seeds, with a FIFA ranking of 27, only 9 places above Scotland.<\/p>\n

They are actually ranked lower than the lowest ranked second seeds, Australia, who are one place above in 26th place.<\/p>\n

The fourth seeds could of course come from the playoffs taking place in March.<\/p>\n

However, it’s unlikely that 149th in the world New Caledonia will come through a semi-final against Jamaica and the final against DR Congo.<\/p>\n

The other pathway will see Bolivia play Suriname for the right to take on Iraq in the final.<\/p>\n

The two lowest ranked confirmed qualifiers are Haiti and Curacao, but given both are part of CONCACAF along with Canada, they couldn’t be drawn in this group.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Cape Verde are the lowest ranked fourth seed Scotland could draw in this scenario.<\/p>\n

Nightmare draw<\/p>\n

Argentina<\/p>\n

Morocco<\/p>\n

Scotland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Italy<\/p>\n

Yes, Spain are the No1 team in the rankings and the one to avoid, but if we are taking one of the UEFA slots and given who we could get in pot 4, then holders Argentina it is in the worst case scenario.<\/p>\n

Croatia are actually the highest ranked second seeds sneaking into the world top 10. However, based on only two UEFA nations max per group, then 2022 semi-finalists and 11th ranked Morocco represent the next toughest test.<\/p>\n

Finally, it would be just Scotland’s luck for Italy to make it through the playoffs and wind up in the same group.<\/p>\n

At 12, they are the highest ranked nation in the playoffs and will face Northern Ireland in the semi-finals then either Wales or Bosnia for a place at the Finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Clarke’s squad will be in Pot 3 for the draw in Washington DC on Friday 5 December…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,1512,4884,186850,712,13315,68112,29532,6536,16,15,93214],"class_list":{"0":"post-594099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-fifa","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-italy-football-team","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-scotland-football-team","14":"tag-spain-football-team","15":"tag-tartan-army","16":"tag-uefa","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115613714860855453","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}