Gist Coven

England in Group G with Belgium, Tunisia & Panama England's first game against Tunisia in Volgograd Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Egypt. Group B: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Iran Russia v Saudi Arabia is first game of World Cup Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark. Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia. Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan

FIFA has moved to reassure football fans it will not manipulate the World Cup draw on Friday to favour certain teams. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter claimed last year that some European football draws have been fixed in the past with the use of hot and cold balls. UEFA called the claims “completely absurd” and Blatter stressed heated balls “didn’t exist” at FIFA draws. Russia was drawn against Peru in the only rehearsal filmed before the media on Wednesday. “There’s no truth to that,” said Chris Unger, FIFA director of competitions, in response to a question about heated balls. “They’re all the same; they don’t feel any different, they don’t look any different with the exception of the red balls, which are there for a purpose. It’s entirely random and by chance how the groups get formed at the end.” Former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan, who will help draw the groups, also attended a rehearsal. “South American teams are very strong,” said Forlan, who was...

Nigeria’s Super Eagles were the youngest team of the 32 teams who qualified for next year’s World Cup in Russia, according to statistics published by FIFA. The Eagles were also among the top 10 teams to play with the most foreign-based players in the qualifiers. CIES Football Observatory in conjunction with FIFA profiled the 32 World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria fielded the youngest players (with an average age of 24.9 years) in the qualifiers, followed by title-holders Germany (25.7) and by U-17 and U-20 world champions England (25.9), at the opposite end of the spectrum were two newcomers Panama (29.4 years) and Iceland (29.0), as well as 2014 FIFA World Cup quarter-finalists Costa Rica (29.0). Croatia, Sweden and Iceland lined up completely foreign-based pros for the qualifiers, while Nigeria used 91.4% foreign players to reach Russia 2018. Nigeria were also in the second half of the 32-team tournament in terms of average height of the players who featured in the qualifying ...