Seeding The draw for the first round (group stage) was held in
Zürich, Switzerland, on 7 December 2020, 18:00
CET (
UTC+1). However, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the draw occurred as a virtual event without any representatives of member associations present. It was originally planned to be held on 29 November 2020. On 18 June 2020, the UEFA Executive Committee approved the draw regulations for the qualifying group stage. The draw was presented by Spanish journalist Cristina Gullón and conducted by FIFA's acting director of competitions, Jaime Yarza. He was assisted by former footballers
Daniele De Rossi and
Rafael van der Vaart, who drew the balls from the pots. The 55 teams were seeded into six pots based on the November 2020
FIFA World Rankings, after the conclusion of the league phase of the
2020–21 UEFA Nations League. Pots 1 to 5 contained ten teams, while Pot 6 contained five teams. The teams were drawn into ten groups: five groups of five teams (Groups A–E) and five groups of six teams (Groups F–J). The draw started with Pot 1 and was completed with Pot 6, from where a team was drawn and assigned to the first available group in alphabetical order. Therefore, each six-team group contains one team from each of the six pots, while each five-team group contains one team from each of the first five pots. The following restrictions were applied with computer assistance: •
Nations League finalists: The four teams participating in the
2021 UEFA Nations League Finals (Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain) were guaranteed to be drawn into groups with only five teams (Groups A–E). A group could contain a maximum of one Nations League finalist (this condition was fulfilled automatically since all four teams were in the same pot). •
Prohibited clashes: For political reasons, matches between following pairs of teams were considered prohibited clashes, unable to be drawn into the same group:
Kosovo–Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kosovo–Serbia,
Kosovo–Russia,
Russia–Ukraine. (Additionally,
Armenia–Azerbaijan and
Gibraltar–Spain were identified as prohibited clashes, but the teams in the former pair were in the same pot for the draw, while the teams in the latter pair were restricted to different-sized groups based on draw pots and conditions.) •
Winter venues: A maximum of two teams whose venues are identified as having high or medium risk of severe winter conditions could be placed in each group: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Ukraine. • The two "hard winter venues" (Faroe Islands and Iceland) generally cannot host games in March or November, and therefore could not be drawn together; the others shall play as few home matches as possible in March and November. •
Excessive travel: A maximum of one pair of teams identified with excessive travel distance in relation to other countries could be placed in each group: • Azerbaijan: with Iceland, Gibraltar, Portugal. • Iceland: with Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel. • Kazakhstan: with England, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales. (Andorra and Faroe Islands were also identified with Kazakhstan for excessive travel distance, but the teams were in the same pot for the draw.) Teams were allocated to seeding pots as follows (November 2020
FIFA Rankings shown in second column).
Summary }
Groups The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 8 December 2020, the day following the draw.
Qatar were partnered with the five-team
Group A, which enabled the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts to play centralised
friendlies against these countries on their "spare" match dates. However, these friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings.
Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F Group G Group H Group I Group J ==Second round==