Fifa have insisted the draw for the 2018 World Cup will be conducted fairly and will not be rigged.
The draw for next summer’s tournament takes place on Friday afternoon and, after claims from former president Sepp Blatter that, at European level, draws had been tampered with questions were raised ahead of Friday’s formalities.
Fifa held a run-through and explanation of the draw for media assembled in Moscow, where the organisation’s director of competitions, Chris Unger, was pressed on rumours of rigged draws following Blatter’s comments last year.
“There’s no truth to that,” Unger said. “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.”
Speaking to Argentine outlet La Nacion last year, Blatter responded to allegations Argentina’s draw at the Brazil World Cup had been rigged saying: “The draw was clean until the last detail.
“I never touched the balls, which was something that others had to do. Of course, it can be signalled, by heating or cooling them.
“It’s technically possible. It did not happen in Fifa, but I witnessed draws at a European level in which it happened - but never in Fifa.
“It could have happened, but in my case it never did, ever.
“If you put the balls in the refrigerator before, a simple comparison between one and the other by touching them determines the cold and hot balls. By touching them, you already know what it is.”
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