TSN.ca 2018 FIFA World Cup blog

Welcome to TSN.ca's live blog of the 2018 FIFA World Cup draw. Follow along with all of the action live from Russia as the field is set into groups for next June.

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11:00am - Thanks for following along!

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10:56am - Well, there it is. If there's a Group of Death, it might be Group D with Argentina, Mexico, Croatia and Nigeria.

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THE DRAW:

Pot 4 Completed

JAPAN - H4

SOUTH KOREA - F4

PANAMA - G2

NIGERIA - D4

AUSTRALIA - C2

MOROCCO - B3

SERBIA - E4

SAUDI ARABIA - A2

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POT 3 COMPLETED

SENEGAL - H2

TUNISIA - G3

SWEDEN - F3

COSTA RICA - E3

ICELAND - D2

IRAN - B4

DENMARK - C4

EGYPT - A3

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POT 2 COMPLETED

COLOMBIA - H3

ENGLAND - G4

MEXICO - F2

SWITZERLAND - E2

CROATIA - D3

PERU - C3

SPAIN - B2

URUGUAY - A4

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POT 1 COMPLETED

POLAND - H1

BELGIUM - G1

GERMANY - F1

BRAZIL - E1

ARGENTINA - D1

FRANCE - C1

PORTUGAL - B1

RUSSIA - A1

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10:32am - HERE WE GO - And it's Russia, obviously

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10:30am - Gary Lineker and Maria Komandnaya are here and we're getting underway.

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10:28am - The eight legends who will assist with the draw have been introduced: Diego Maradona, Gordon Banks, Diego Forlan, Fabio Cannavaro, Carles Puyol, Cafu, Nikita Simonyan and Laurent Blanc.

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10:24am - A reminder: Russia is automatically the first team in Group A. They'll probably do some sort of symbolic pulling of the name, but that's already decided.

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10:22am - I'm not gonna lie - this music is kinda catchy.

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10:20am - So there's some interpretive dancing happening right now...

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10:18am - This would have been faster, let's not kid ourselves.

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10:16am - Hey, it's Miroslav Klose and he's got the World Cup trophy with him. He's being asked the kind of pithy questions that you would expect. Surprisingly, he said winning the World Cup was exciting.

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10:13am - And now a musical interlude featuring Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme on guitar. They were popular in 1992.

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10:11am - There is now a video presentation featuring some cosmonauts. I warned you. This is gonna go long.

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10:08am - FIFA President Gianni Infantino is speaking now. His head is a perfect oval.

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10:05am - If you've ever wondered what Diego Maradona looks like in a tuxedo, wonder no more.

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10:03am - Vladimir Putin will be the first speaker of the presentation. He is not wearing an Alex Ovechkin jersey.

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10:02am - If you're concerned about screwing up, you're gonna screw it up. Really, though, Lineker's pretty good when it comes to British pundits. Be thankful we're not getting Jamie Redknapp or Michael Owen.

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10:00am - Look, I'm not gonna lie, this is gonna run long. There's gonna be bad comedy from Gary Lineker and what could be done in maybe five minutes will be spread out over a couple of hours. I know all you want to know is who is grouped with whom and we'll get you that, but we're gonna hafta put up with the hilarity that is a FIFA presentation.

 

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THE FIELD