
Following another round of thrilling matches as we enter the final straight in qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, FIFA is pleased to announce that the European play-off draw will take place in Zurich on Tuesday 17 October at 14:00 CET. The draw will be streamed live on FIFA.com and YouTube.
The play-off ties will be decided by aggregate score over two legs, though, in the event of a draw, the team that scores more away goals will qualify. If the winner is still not decided at the end of normal time in the second leg, the match will go to extra time with two periods of 15 minutes and the away goals rule still applied. If the scores are still level at the end of extra time, the tie will go to penalties, as described in the Laws of the Game.
Draw procedure
The eight teams will be seeded in two pots with the four highest-ranked teams placed in one pot. The ranking will be based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking published on 16 October.
One team will be drawn from Pot 1 and the other will be drawn from Pot 2, with the two balls then placed into a third pot. These two balls will be stirred again and drawn one by one. The first ball drawn will be the home team for the first leg. The same process will be repeated for the remaining balls in each pot.
By FIFA.com