At the start of a sporting odyssey, anything is possible. The draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup will take place in Switzerland today and the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will know their opponents in the qualifying stage by around 6 pm.
The draw itself will be shown live on the RTÉ News Channel and across a variety of social media channels.
All we can say with certainty at the moment is that we will not be drawn together as both sides are in Pot Three, alongside Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Greece, Norway, Iceland, Scotland and Finland.
The draw will take place virtually so no shots of happy or anxious faces in the crowd, but Stephen Kenny will host a press conference at the FAI to give his reaction after the draw.
We will be drawn against one team from each of the other six pots or in a group of five without one of the traditional smallest of the minnow nations.
The top-seeded teams are Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Denmark and the Netherlands. One of them will be coming to Dublin.
We could end up in a group containing Denmark, Wales, Georgia, Cyprus and Gibraltar but that might be a touch too close to Groundhog Day. In fact, though it is only a one in 64 chance of us getting Denmark and Wales, again, so don’t get too blasé.
The winner of each of the ten groups will secure qualification for the Finals in Qatar in two years time from now.
The ten runners up will then go into playoffs, along with the two highest-ranked teams from the Nations League that have not secured a Top Two place.
The twelve teams will be in three groups of four with semi-finals and a Final, just as was the case with the Euro’s.
Things will happen quickly with the first three games taking place in March of next year, before the rescheduled Euro 2020 Finals, then three more in September and two more in October and the final two in November 2021.
The playoffs will take place in March 2022.
Anything is possible, and being in the thick of a qualification campaign will lessen the pain of not being at the Euro Finals at least.
Sport for Business Partners
