WEEKLY WHINE

Perform the draw through a straw

This week, the draw for the 2018 Men’s World Cup will decide who will play whom in Russia. The draw always receives plenty of media attention, particularly when it inevitably creates imbalance: a Group of Death and a Group of Slappy Hands.

This time around, though, FIFA have decided to allocate the pots by the world rankings and not by confederation. This means that each group will have one very good team, one pretty good team, one decent team, and one miscellaneous team. Amusingly, however, confederation protection is still enabled, which means that draw viewers will have endless fun watching the conductors figure out whether the computer is saying that Panama can or cannot be in Group F.

Is that really the best way to conduct the draw, though? Do you have a better idea? If so, here is your opportunity to perform your own draw. Just drag the teams and drop them into any pot you like, select whether you want to activate confederation protection [which, if activated, will ensure that each group will contain no more than CEIL(N/8) teams from a given confederation, where N is the total number of teams from that confederation], and then get to it.

Once you’ve completed your draw, we invite you to send it to us at <goobnet‍@‍goobnet.net>. As usual, there is a fantastic prize available to anyone who is able to recreate the results of the actual draw. Anyone who matches the exact makeup of all eight groups will win tickets to all of Italy’s matches at the 2018 Men’s World Cup.

Note that entries must be received before the draw begins. So technically, the fantastic prize is available to anyone who is able to precreate the results of the actual draw.

Confederation protection

START DRAW

DRAW TEAM DRAW GROUP

RESTART DRAW