England among top seeds for WC draw

SAINT PETERSBURG — England and Wales will take their place among the top nine European seeds for Saturday’s World Cup qualifying draw in Saint Petersburg on Saturday.

The top seeds are based on the Fifa world rankings from June meaning previous World Cup winners Italy and France are only second seeds.

World champions Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Portugal, Spain and Croatia are the other top seeds.

Along with hosts Russia, 13 other European nations will qualify for the World Cup with the nine group winners from Saturday’s draw being joined by the winners of four playoffs between the eight best second-placed teams.

Scotland and Northern Ireland will be in the third of the six pots, whilst the Republic of Ireland are in pot four. The qualifying groups will take place between September 2016 and October 2017 with the playoffs in November 2017.

Hulk dropped

Brazil and Zenit St Petersburg forward Hulk has been dropped from Saturday’s star-studded lineup for the 2018 World Cup qualifying draw just 24 hours before the draw takes place, Fifa confirmed on Friday.

The 28-year-old was set to feature alongside the likes of compatriot Ronaldo and Samuel Eto’o, but has been replaced by former Russia captain Alexey Smertin.

Fifa attributed Hulk’s absence from the ceremony due to his commitments with Zenit, who play away to Urai on Sunday. However, Hulk has also been an outspoken critic of the problems Russian football faces with racism and suggested it could blight the World Cup in three years’ time.

“If this happens during the 2018 World Cup it may become a serious problem as the whole world will be able to watch it,” he said earlier this week.