All eyes will turn to Washington this Friday as the FIFA World Cup draw unfolds, with England and Scotland eagerly waiting to learn who they will face in the group stages.

Taking place at the John F. Kennedy Center, FIFA has detailed the draw procedures to reflect changes from previous tournaments. The introduction of a 48-team format, three co-hosting nations, and yet-to-be-decided qualifiers necessitate meticulous planning to prevent any missteps.

The co-hosts—United States, Canada, and Mexico—will be part of pot 1. Meanwhile, due to a newly implemented seeding system, teams such as Spain, Argentina, France, and England will avoid each other until the semi-finals if they top their groups. Furthermore, guidelines ensure that no more than one team from the same confederation, besides UEFA, will be in a single group.

FIFA has orchestrated the event to be a grand affair, with US President Donald Trump expected to attend and live performances by the Village People and Robbie Williams.

The organization aims to steer clear of controversies that have marred some past draws. In light of this, Daily Mail Sport reflects on a few instances where previous World Cup draws encountered hiccups.

FIFA are set to host a star-studded draw for next summer’s World Cup in Washington

The expanded 48-team draw will see several rules in place to ensure groups are correctly drawn

US President Donald Trump is expected to be in attendance at the Kennedy Center

1982 World Cup draw descends into farce

The 1982 World Cup in Spain had seen an expansion to 24 teams, up from 16, to boost representation from Africa and Asia.

A grand draw ceremony was held in Madrid, with then FIFA secretary general Sepp Blatter placed in charge of proceedings.

FIFA had caused controversy in the build-up to the draw by controversially naming England among the top seeds for the tournament, despite failing to qualify for the previous two editions. England’s status as a former winner was cited as one reason, while FIFA listed ‘security reasons’ as the main cause.

England’s status was the least of the issues when the draw got underway, with FIFA having stressed in rehearsals that the only condition was that there could only be one South American team in each group.

As a result, Peru and Chile were to be excluded from pot 3 until two European teams were allocated to the groups containing Argentina and Brazil.

Blatter and fellow FIFA executive Hermann Neuberger, after explaining the process in the rehearsal, forgot the rule when it came to the televised draw.

As a consequence Belgium were wrongly drawn into a group alongside Italy, with Scotland then taking their place in a group with holders Argentina.

The mistake was eventually realised by a delegate forcing Neuberger to send back one of the young assistants helping with the draw, while a discussion was held between officials on live television.

FIFA’s draw for the 1982 World Cup in Spain descended into chaos after they forgot a rule

Viewers were left baffled after FIFA wrongly placed Belgium and Scotland in the group draw

Then FIFA secretary general Sepp Blatter eventually directed executives to correct the groups

‘We are just hearing there has been an error with the draw, I must admit it confused me slighty, and they are now trying to sort things out slightly,’ BBC commentator Brian Moore said.

‘Keep your eyes on Belgium and see where they go. There are whistles in the hall, to be honest it doesn’t surprise me as everything has been a bit confused.’

The delay included the BBC showing the faces of the watching Kevin Keegan, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen and Pat Jennings looking confused as organisers attempted to resolve the situation.

After correcting the error, which led to Scotland being moved to a group alongside Brazil, FIFA’s problems continued to mount.

Having opted to use machines famous in Spain for hosting their lottery, the draw was disrupted further when they broke down, while one of the balls had opened inside.

This required officials to manually intervene to get the draw up and running again, while some of the younger assistants looked on attempting to hide their amusement at the farce. 

After wrongly placing Belgium, Scotland were then drawn alongside Argentina

The correction led Belgium to move into Argentina’s group, while Scotland met Brazil

After fixing the groups, a machine which was used to deliver the balls stopped working

Sepp Blatter vs Robin Williams

The last time the United States hosted the draw ahead of the 1994 World Cup, they called upon Robin Williams to be one of the assistants.

Williams, typically, emerged full of energy and forced Blatter – 12 years on from his last World Cup draw farce – desperately attempting to control the comedian.

‘Not yet, not yet,’ Blatter said as Williams made his way over the draw out the balls, before comically placing on a white glove to laughs from the audience.

‘We are happy to have you Robin, it is wonderful to have you, or should I say Mrs Doubtfire,’ Blatter joked, reading off a cue card.

‘Thank you Mr Blatter,’ Williams responded, before adding ‘Funny I just met you in the men’s room a moment ago’ to more laughter.

Blatter was again forced to tell Williams to ‘stop’ and asked him for time to explain the final step of the draw process, as the quick-witted comedian continued to interject. This led to Williams motioning as Blatter continued his explanation.

An eccentric performance from Williams continued as he began drawing teams, quipping ‘let’s go through the prizes’ as he dipped his hand into the pot in one instance, before bowing to the FIFA secretary general and declaring ‘Mr Blatter’ to applause from the hall after passing him a ball.

The final ball saw Williams close his eyes and pretend to struggle to find the country, as Blatter explained how it would be Switzerland, where FIFA’s headquarters are housed.

Blatter struggled to control comic Robin Williams as he assisted the 1994 draw with an eccentric performance 

Williams exchanged jokes with Blatter before performative bowing to him after passing the FIFA executive a ball

Williams, who put on a white glove at the start of the draw, pretended to be struggling to see the final ball

FIFA reassure fans over ‘hot and cold balls’ claims

Blatter was once again at the centre of controversy in the build-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, after his controversial reign as president had been brought to an end three years earlier.

The Swiss official had courted controversy by suggesting two years earlier that European draws had been ‘fixed’ by heating up or cooling down balls.

‘Of course, you can mark them (by) heating them or cooling them,’ Blatter had said.

‘I witnessed draws at the European level where that happened. But never at FIFA. Of course it can be done.

‘You put the balls in the refrigerator beforehand. Just by comparing one and the other when you touch them you can tell the cold balls from the hot. When you touch them, you know what they are.’

The claims were immediately dismissed by UEFA, but led to questions being raised ahead of the 2018 World Cup draw in Russia.

Blatter had caused controversy ahead of the 2018 World Cup draw after claiming UEFA had used hot and cold balls in their competition draws, a claim the governing body denied

FIFA were forced to reassure fans over the integrity of the process prior to the draw for the 2018 World Cup after Blatter’s comments

FIFA were forced to reassure fans over the integrity of the draw in the wake of Blatter’s comments.

‘There’s no truth to that,’ Chris Unger, FIFA director of competitions, said at the time. 

‘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.’