Qualifier from Scotland and Wales’ play-off path set for World Cup draw pot four

Scotland will be in with the lowest-ranked seeds for next week’s World Cup draw, along with Wales if they get past Austria on Thursday.

The four-team World Cup play-off path featuring those two countries had been due to be completed by March 29, but Scotland’s semi-final against Ukraine has been postponed until June due to the Russian invasion of the eastern European country.

Wales play Austria on Thursday in a semi-final, but the winner of that match must then wait until June to play the winner of the Scotland-Ukraine tie.

Tournament organisers FIFA confirmed the procedure for the draw on Tuesday, and revealed that the three teams still in with a chance of progressing through the play-off path by the time of the draw on April 1 will be treated as one entrant, and placed in pot four with the lowest-ranked nations.

The seeding of other nations who have definitely qualified by the time of the draw will be determined by the FIFA rankings due to be published on March 31.

The top pot of seeds will feature the seven highest-ranked sides involved, plus hosts Qatar.

England are currently ranked fifth in the world, with only Belgium, Brazil, France and Argentina above them.

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