Preparations begin for 2018 FIFA World Cup Draw in Moscow

Organisers in Moscow are making final preparations for the FIFA World Cup draw, which will be held on Friday.

Wolf Zabivaka, the official mascot of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, at a rehearsal of the 2018 FIFA World Cup final draw at the State Kremlin Palace. [Photo: IC]

"You will have a nice surprise and everybody will be only focused on football. The draw will be putting the highlights on football and the football players," FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura.

FIFA has changed how it allocates teams in the draw and now uses rankings alone.

FIFA World Cup Office head Chris Unger explains a conspiracy theory involving the lottery system, that FIFA could make the balls hot and cold to help fix the draw.

"I can tell you because I've been involved in the last three draws in Brazil and South Africa as well and that's a big story. There's no truth to that, in fact I'd be happy to invite you up and show you they (the balls) are all the same. They don't feel any different, they don't look any different with the exception of the red ball, but that's there for a purpose. It's entirely random, it's entirely by chance how the groups get formed," Chris Unger said.

The 32 finalists will be split into eight groups.

Only Europe can have two teams in the same group.