With several spots still to be decided, only 29 of the 32 entries will be confirmed when the drawing begins at 19:00 local time (12:00 ET) at the Doha Exhibition Centre.
Here’s everything you need to know about Friday’s ceremony.
After winning the application in 2010 and with hosts being rewarded with automatic qualification, Qatar had a decade to prepare for his World Cup debut.
The golfing nation is backed by the 10 European winners of the UEFA qualifying groups, led by the four-time winner Germany and double champion Franceas well as Spain and Englandwho both have a World Cup triumph under their belt.
Serbia, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Croatia and the Netherlands rounds out the remaining European group winners.
Portugal and Poland stamped their tickets after progressing to the UEFA play-offs, with wins over North Macedonia and Sweden respectively ensuring legendary strikers Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski will both play in Qatar.
Brazilthe most successful country in World Cup history with five titles, played into form by qualifying as group winners of the CONMEBOL — the South American soccer confederation — round robin.
The Seleçao followed the old rival through Argentinaas well as Uruguay and Ecuador.
An exciting week of the third qualifying round of the CAF – the Confederation of African Football – came to an end Senegal again proved to be the bane of Egypt and secured his passage to Qatar on penalties on Tuesday.
Cameroon past Algeria into overtime courtesy of a winner Ghana, Tunisia and Morocco round up the rest of the African contingent for Friday’s draw.
In the AFC – the Asian Football Confederation – section of qualification, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Japan went through to ensure back-to-back World Cup appearances.
Canada secured its first World Cup qualifier in 36 years after winning the round robin of CONCACAF – the confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean football.On Wednesday the United States ended an eight-year World Cup break and qualified despite a 2-0 loss to Costa Rica in San Jose. They are accompanied by neighbors Mexicowho took the third and final automatic CONCACAF qualifying spot.
Who still needs to qualify?
Two intercontinental playoffs in June will decide the next two places. Peru meets the winner of the United Arab Emirates against Australiawhile Costa Rica will be faced New Zealand in the other endgame.
The last place will be the winner of a match between Wales and one of Scotland or Ukrainea match originally scheduled for March 24 but postponed to June by FIFA following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A date for the postponed qualifier has yet to be announced by FIFA.
who missed it
Reigning European Champion Italy was undoubtedly the most shocking casualty of qualifying as the four-time World Cup winner missed a second consecutive tournament after being stunned by North Macedonia.Mohamed Salah and Riyad Mahrez will both be missing after that Egypt and Algeria couldn’t qualify. Salah’s Liverpool team-mate Luis Diaz will also be absent afterwards Colombia experienced a disappointing qualifying run.
Young superstar striker Erling Haaland is also missing, as Norway Third in his qualifying group.
Who is in which pot?
The draw will be made in eight groups of four pots, organized according to the FIFA Men’s World Ranking of 31 March.
Teams from the same confederation cannot be grouped together, except for Europe as they will have 13 teams in Qatar.
Pot 1 – Hosts and the top seven countries
- Qatar
- Belgium
- Brazil
- France
- Argentina
- England
- Spain
- Portugal
Pot 2 – 8th-15th top ranked countries
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Germany
- Mexico
- United States
- Switzerland
- Croatia
- Uruguay
Pot 3 – places 16-23
- Senegal
- Iran
- Japan
- Morocco
- Serbia
- Poland
- South Korea
- Tunisia
Pot 4 – places 24-28, plus intercontinental playoff winners and last UEFA playoff winner
- Saudi Arabia
- Ecuador
- Ghana
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Costa Rica or New Zealand
- Peru or UAE or Australia
- Wales or Ukraine or Scotland
key data
Qatar will host the curtain call on November 21, with the final round of group matches ending on December 2.
The knockout stage begins the following day and lasts until December 18, when the Lusail Stadium hosts the World Cup final.
like watching
FIFA will stream the draw on their website, while UK viewers can watch via BBC One. Follow live updates here on CNN.