World Cup 2018 qualifying draw: Everyone's path to Russia set

The 2018 World Cup in Russia is almost three years away, but the qualification process is already underway. On Saturday, in St. Petersberg, the path to the World Cup will be set for everyone still alive in qualification -- over a hundred teams.

In UEFA, there are no preliminary stages. Everyone is put into groups where the top teams advance and second-placed teams go into playoffs. The same goes for CONMEBOL, which only has 10 teams, so they have just one big stage where everyone plays each other twice. All that's decided today in South America is order of matches. In the rest of the world, qualifying for the World Cup is more complicated.

The final stages of CAF, AFC and CONCACAF qualifying will not be set for over a year from now. What's being drawn on Saturday is the stage before the final qualifying stage.

UEFA

Group A

Netherlands
France
Sweden
Bulgaria
Belarus
Luxembourg

Group B

Portugal
Switzerland
Hungary
Faroe Islands
Latvia
Andorra

Group C

Germany
Czech Republic
Northern Ireland
Norway
Azerbaijan
San Marino

Group D

Wales
Austria
Serbia
Republic of Ireland
Moldova
Georgia

Group E

Romania
Denmark
Poland
Montenegro
Armenia
Kazakhstan

Group F

England
Slovakia
Scotland
Slovenia
Lithuania
Malta

Group G

Spain
Italy
Albania
Israel
Macedonia
Liechtenstein

Group H

Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Greece
Estonia
Cyprus

Group I

Croatia
Iceland
Ukraine
Turkey
Finland

CONCACAF - Round 4

Group A

Mexico
Honduras
Curacao or El Salvador
Canada or Belize

Group B

Costa Rica
Panama
Grenada or Haiti
Jamaica or Nicaragua

Group C

United States
Trinidad and Tobago
St. Vincent and the Grenadines or Aruba
Antigua and Barbuda or Guatemala

CONMEBOL

Colombia
Chile
Paraguay
Argentina
Brazil
Ecuador
Venezuela
Bolivia
Peru
Uruguay

This means that Argentina host the first big clasico against Brazil on Matchday 3 and the return fixture is on Matchday 11. Brazil should probably get their work done early, because they have to go away to Bolivia on the second-to-last matchday.

CAF - Round 2

Somalia or Niger vs. Cameroon
South Sudan or Mauritania vs. Tunisia
Gambia or Namibia vs. Guinea
Sao Tome e Principe or Ethiopia vs. Congo
Chad or Sierra Leone vs. Egypt
Comoros or Lesotho vs. Ghana
Djibouti or Swaziland vs. Nigeria
Eritrea or Botswana vs. Mali
Seychelles or Burundi vs. Congo DR
Liberia or Guinea-Bissau vs. Ivory Coast
Central African Republic or Madagascar vs. Senegal
Mauritius or Kenya vs. Cape Verde
Tanzania or Malawi vs. Algeria
Sudan vs. Zambia
Libya vs. Rwanda
Morocco vs. Equatorial Guinea
Mozambique vs. Gabon
Benin vs. Burkina Faso
Togo vs. Uganda
Angola vs. South Africa

OFC - Round 2

Group A

Tahiti
New Caledonia
Papua New Guinea
Round 1 winner

Group B

New Zealand
Solomon Islands
Fiji
Vanuatu

Inter-continental playoffs

4th place CONCACAF vs. 5th place Asia
1st place Oceania vs. 5th place South America