How does a drawing of lots work?

The 2018 World Cup has been intensely entertaining for how close so many groups have come, including the elimination of Senegal earlier on Thursday on fair play tiebreakers. But England and Belgium may go further than that, as a draw in their last Group G match and the potential of ending even on the Fair Play tiebreaker that they’re separated in by a single point in would exhaust their tiebreaker options. That means that they would have to go to the drawing of lots, something not used in the World Cup since 1990.

What can happen

Assuming that England and Belgium do have to go to the drawing of lots, at roughly 11 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) immediately following the game, the FIFA Organising Committee will meet in the Luzhniki Stadium press conference room with a bowl and balls filled with slips of paper that have either England or Belgium printed on them. In a live stream on the FIFA website, they’ll randomly draw a ball out, and whichever nation’s name is pulled out of that ball will be declared the winner of their group.

Some of the tension will come out of the moment because both teams will advance — the draw is merely to determine the winner. The only time the drawing of lots has been used in the World Cup itself was in 1990, when the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands finished even on every tiebreaker in their group, and Ireland were drawn as the second-place team with a kinder knockout round draw, facing a Romania team that they beat on penalties. The Dutch thus finished in third place in their group, advancing to a knockout round match against Germany that they lost.

In 1954, a drawing of lots was used to determine which of Spain or Turkey would advance to the World Cup itself, after the two teams were even in qualifying and then drew their tiebreaker match. A blindfolded 14 year old Italian boy who’s father worked at the stadium the tiebreaker was held at was tasked with pulling a ball out of the bowl, and he selected Turkey as the team to advance.

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