The world’s top four teams will not be able to meet until the semi-finals of next year’s World Cup if they win their groups under a seeding system used by Fifa at the tournament for the first time.
It means England would benefit from tennis-style seeding and avoid Spain and Argentina until the semi-finals and France until the final if they win their group.
Fifa is introducing the system for the World Cup, having adopted a similar format for the Club World Cup this year.
The top two teams in the Fifa rankings – Spain and Argentina – will be on opposite draw pathways, as will the third- and fourth-ranked sides, France and England respectively.
Those four teams would then be placed in different quadrants of the 32-team knockout phase if they all come top of their groups.
The draw for the finals will take place in Washington DC on 5 December from 5pm GMT. England are among the top seeds, while Scotland are in pot three. England and Scotland could be drawn against each other, but that possibility will be removed if England draw a European opponent from pot two.
Quick GuideThe four pots for the World Cup draw
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Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, US, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany.
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia.
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.
Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, four European playoff teams, two intercontinental playoff teams.
A maximum of two European teams can be placed in each group. Teams from the other confederations must be kept apart.