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| The starting members for South Korea pose for a group photo before their World Cup qualifying match against the United Arab Emirates at Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai on March 29, 2022. (Photo from the Korea Football Association) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] SEOUL: South Korea will be placed in Pot 3 of the draw for this year's FIFA World Cup based on the latest world rankings released Thursday, meaning that they will end up with a pair of top-20 countries in the group stage in November.
South Korea stayed at No. 29 in the FIFA rankings. As of Thursday, 28 teams have qualified for the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 tournament in Qatar, with the host country automatically in the competition. The draw is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday in Doha, or 1 a.m. Saturday in Seoul time. The remaining three spots will be filled with winners of the European playoffs and the intercontinental playoffs in June. The already-qualified teams will be divided into four "pots" with eight teams each, based on their FIFA world ranking positions. In all, the 32 teams will be paired into eight groups of four, and the groups will feature a team from each of the four pots. No group will have more than one team from the same region, except for Europe.
The cap on European teams per group is two, since there will be 13 countries from that continent in the tournament. Checking in at No. 29, South Korea ended up in Pot 3, which included 16th- to 23rd best-ranked qualifiers
