Argentina
2014 runners-up

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Pedigree: Argentina have won the World Cup twice - in 1978 and 1986 - and been runners-up on three occasions, in 1930, 1990 and in Brazil in 2014, when they lost 1-0 to Germany in the final.

Key player: Lionel Messi. Messi, who has been voted the best player in the world on five occasions, scored the hat-trick in the last round of South American Qualifying against Ecuador to take Argentina to the finals.

Gary Flintoff
BBC Radio 5 live at the World Cup draw in Moscow

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We can see football royalty wandering around on the theatre floor inside the Kremlin State Palace. Pelé is here. Didier Deschamps has just arrived and I am sure Carlos Valderrama will be here.

The Colombian legend has been following me around this week. He was on the same flight out to Moscow as me and even turned up in the accreditation queue alongside me yesterday!

Belgium
Semi-finalists 1986

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Pedigree: Having failed to qualify for the previous two tournaments, Belgium reached the quarter-finals at Brazil 2014, losing to eventual runners-up Argentina. The Red Devils' best finish was fourth in 1986.

Key player: Eden Hazard. The twinkle-toed Chelsea forward unlocks defences with his rapid change of pace, close control and eye for a pass. He also wears the captain's armband for Roberto Martinez's side.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport

In theory, all 32 countries have an equal chance at the World Cup.

Obviously, good players lengthen or shorten those odds dramatically and in that regard, some countries have a clear advantage over others due to the size of their population.

If Portugal, Uruguay, Iceland and Panama were put together in a group, their combined population would be 18.13million.

By contrast, a Brazil, Mexico, Iran, Nigeria group would have a combined population of 601.4million, 33 times the size.

Can only pick 11 of course...

Russia
World Cup hosts

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Pedigree: Stanislav Cherchesov's side will be the fourth Russia team to play at a World Cup - they first appeared at USA 94 - although the Soviet Union finished fourth in 1966.

Key player: Veteran goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev has won more than 100 caps and his experience could be vital. The 31-year-old, who has spent his entire career at CSKA Moscow, is likely to captain the hosts.

Aparat Zjarrfikes: Instead of a draw just have a room with 8 tables of 4, all the coaches of the 32 teams line up and race to a chair. Anyone not sitting after 1 minute loses their World Cup spot. Whoever you end up with is your group. Would make fantastic TV!

Sonia now has the opposite problem in Salford where she regularly goes months without seeing daylight at all...

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BBC Sport's Sonia Oxley has lived in St Petersburg, which is near where England will be based.

Here she tells us about the 'white nights' that occur across most of June, when the sun never fully sets.

"'You can sit outside at 11pm and read a newspaper' was what we were all told about what to expect from the white nights in St Petersburg. And yes, it was true…and it was novel and exciting for the first two or three nights.

"And then it really wasn’t – I mean, when you come to think of it, why would you actually want to sit outside reading at that time? Why wouldn’t you want to be asleep in the dark in your bed?

"Blackout blinds, eye masks, a stiff vodka – anything to try to keep the sunlight out of the room at midnight. It was like doing night shifts and trying to sleep during the day – except it was night-time, although you couldn’t really be sure. It was like jet lag, except you’d spent 10 minutes on the metro rather than 10 hours on a plane.

"I was tired, I was disorientated, I craved (and demolished) sugar to keep me going, the last thing I wanted to do was exercise. Not exactly ideal conditions if I had been a footballer at a World Cup… are England ready for that?"

Gary Flintoff
BBC Radio 5 live at the World Cup draw in Moscow

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The BBC’s football correspondent John Murray has the look of a man about to commentate on a World Cup draw. He has seen the rehearsal, so he knows what is to come in terms of the format, but there is always that tricky moment during a draw of this nature where for just a second no-one is sure what is going on!

Teams will be seeded based on the October 2017 Fifa world rankings. There are four pots - each containing eight teams. Russia will be joined in pot one by the seven highest-ranked teams, with the next eight in pot two, the following eight in pot three and the lowest ranked eight in pot four.

No teams from the same confederation, with the exception of Uefa, will be drawn in the same group. A maximum of two European countries can be in any group.

Chris Ryan: you say the draw is an hour away. Is there not going to be an hour or so of boring chit chat before the actual draw begins?

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I know what you're thinking Chris but Fifa are keeping it tight this year. Allegedly.

The script only allows just over half an hour to draw all 32 teams which seems ambitious...

England
World Cup winners 1966

Choose your formation, ponder where to play Dele Alli and then cry when it comes to central midfield...

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Choose your England XI here.

ONE hour.

Patrick Jennings
BBC Sport

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England have a 54% chance of getting a draw that requires more travelling than the approximate 7,100km they covered in exiting the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Thirteen of the 24 possible outcomes open to Gareth Southgate's side will see them clock up even more.

The nightmare draw? That would be position C3.

First game in Saransk, then way out east to Yekaterinburg, and finally to the most southerly venue, Sochi. That's a round trip - heading back to their base near St Petersburg after all the games - of around 9,850km.

John Bennett
BBC World Service

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They'll have the youngest squad in Russia and it's a new generation of talent that is giving the Nigeria fans real hope for the future. There is competition for places in attack with the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Odion Ighalo and Victor Moses who was their best player in qualifying playing in a more advanced role than at Chelsea.

Captain John Mikel Obi and Wilfried Ndidi also give them a lot of solidity in midfield. There are questions marks about their defence and the goalkeeper but a 4-2 win over Argentina last month made a lot of people stand up and take notice of this Nigeria team. German head coach Gernot Rohr is a calming presence in the dugout and they've already agreed their bonuses, so there should be no repeat of the money rows in Brazil.

I absolutely loved Zvonimir Boban as a player.

But look at him now!

Absolute Hollywood.

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England are in pot two, which means they will definitely not play Spain, who are also among the second seeds, in the pool stage.

A tough scenario would see them drawn in the same group as five-time winners Brazil, seven-time Africa Cup of Nations champions Egypt, and Serbia.

An easier draw, on paper at least, would see them in a group with Poland, Iran and Panama.

There are - as you'd imagine - many, many possible scenarios. We're just going to have to sit tight.

John Bennett
BBC World Service

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Some have called Egypt the "pass it to Salah team" and although that sounds pretty disrespectful to the rest of the squad, it's not far from the truth. With Mohamed Salah they can cause teams problems. Without him they are very one dimensional.

Inspired by the Liverpool winger they reached the Africa Cup of Nations final earlier this year and he somehow managed to keep calm enough to score an injury time penalty against Congo which sent Egypt to the World Cup for the first time since 1990. The coach is experienced former Valencia and Inter boss Hector Cuper who must be nervous every time he watches Liverpool. The Pharaohs need a fully fit Salah in Russia.

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Strong look.

Patrick Jennings
BBC Sport

In a country that covers one eighth of all the earth's inhabited land, 32 nations will compete for the biggest prize in football next summer.

England could start in Kaliningrad, Russia's ice-free outpost on the Baltic coast, or 2,500km east in Yekaterinburg - where the Bolsheviks executed Russia's royal family in July 1918.

Image source, .

If they're lucky, they won't be the team that gets a group stage round trip of almost 10,000km.

So what is their dream draw? Will the weather be an issue? And what about the fans?

Find out more here.