Gareth Southgate insisted England would stick with their training base outside St Petersburg even if the World Cup draw results in difficult travel arrangements for his team.
The Football Association has already selected Repino, a secluded village on the Gulf of Finland, as a base for the squad and they will stay at the four-star ForRestMix Club. But if England are drawn in position C3 it will mean they travel 6,120 miles during the group stages, significantly more than the 4,411 miles the team racked up commuting to fixtures in Brazil during the previous World Cup.
The England manager said there would be no change of location, regardless of the outcome of Friday’s draw. “We went through a long process in terms of looking at the venues that were available,” he said. “Fifa have set venues so they pair hotels with training grounds.
“It was important for us that we had a hotel with exclusive use. We want to mix and engage with the local community but, equally, it’s important to have a base where the players can relax and switch off without being disturbed.
Quick Guide
World Cup 2018: the draw
The group stage draw will take place on Friday 1 December (3pm GMT/6pm local) at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow. Organisers promise a ‘colourful show representing local culture’ before the balls are drawn.
Hosts Russia will be seeded in Group A. The 31 qualifiers will be split into four pots, based on the October world rankings. Teams from the same confederation will be kept apart – although a maximum of two Uefa sides can be drawn together.
Pot 1: Russia (hosts, Group A), Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, France.
Pot 2: Spain, Peru, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Croatia.
Pot 3: Denmark, Iceland, Costa Rica, Sweden, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Iran.
Pot 4: Serbia, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Morocco, Panama, South Korea, Saudi Arabia.
It’s best not to presume anything with England but a group with, say, Brazil, Iceland and Nigeria would look more daunting than facing Poland, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. You can test the permutations for yourself with our interactive draw simulator.
2010 winners Spain are somehow in pot two and will be the ones to avoid for all the top seeds. There are only two debutants in Iceland and Panama but three teams have qualified for the first time this century – Peru (first since 1982), Egypt (1990) and Morocco (1998). Or if you like an underdog, how about backing the current lowest-ranked team? It’s the hosts, Russia.
“The longest flight we’d have to do is three hours. That’s nothing – all the players are travelling that sort of distance for Champions League games. Our last game at Wembley we drove down by bus from The Grove and that was three hours. This isn’t a situation like we had in Brazil where Manaus was a six‑hour flight. The logistics of the games in Russia are closer together.”
England are in pot two, according to their position in the latest Fifa rankings, meaning they could be in the same group as Brazil or Germany. There are also dangerous teams lurking in pots three and four in Costa Rica and Nigeria. But Southgate sought to play down the significance of the draw and suggested England had been undone by complacency in past tournaments. Iceland sealed England’s exit at Euro 2016 and with elimination already guaranteed at Brazil 2014 they finished with a goalless encounter against Costa Rica.
Southgate said: “Our preparation for matches, no matter who we play against, has to be thoroughly detailed and prepared for scenarios where things don’t go to plan.
“I’m looking at a couple of the Icelandic players who play in our league, we are really guilty of underestimating the quality of other teams. Although the draw is really exciting for everybody, it’s great for the supporters, a significant date in the football calendar, great for us to be able to plan beyond it but all it does it tells us who we are playing and when. The rest is up to us.”