ST PETERSBURG, July 26 — Defending soccer champion and current No 2 Germany will have to get past the 20th ranked Czechs to earn a place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The two teams were grouped with four others in the European phase of the qualifying draw for sport’s most-watched event, which took place in St Petersburg yesterday.

The draw by soccer’s governing body, FIFA, also grouped No 3 Belgium with Greece, No 5 the Netherlands with 1998 champion France and former champions Spain and Italy. England and Scotland will face each other in the first round, as will Wales and Ireland and Portugal and Switzerland. The draw marked the official start of the three-year build-up to the tournament and comes amid a series of bribery investigations into FIFA.

“As promised, we will do all we can for sportsmen and fans alike to feel at home here,” President Vladimir Putin told embattled FIFA chief Sepp Blatter before the selections began at the Konstantinovsky Palace near Putin’s hometown.

It was the first time Blatter left Switzerland since seven current and former soccer officials were arrested in Zurich in May. Blatter announced plans to step down days after winning a fifth term. FIFA will hold elections to replace him in February.

Much of FIFA’s troubles stem from the awarding of World Cup rights in 2010, when Russia and Qatar were selected to host the next two tournaments. The US Department of Justice is investigating what it says are more than two decades of “rampant” corruption, while Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal probe of the group.

Putin, Blatter

Russia, as host, is guaranteed a spot in the 32-team final phase of the tournament, leaving 31 slots up for grabs. Europe is allotted 13 positions, Africa five, Asia and South America four each and North and Central America three. The last two places will be determined by a playoff between Oceania’s top team, North and Central America’s No 4 team and the No 5 teams from Asia and South America.

FIFA seeds teams by their latest global ranking so the best European teams don’t have to face each other in the earliest rounds. That’s not so for South America, where all 10 entries will play each other as a single group.

The continent has three of the world’s top six teams, led by Argentina at No 1. Germany are a close second, followed by Belgium, Colombia and the Netherlands. Brazil, Portugal, Romania, England and Wales round out the top 10.

Russia are currently ranked 28th, a step below Ukraine, while the US are 34th, behind Tunisia and Sweden and ahead of Ecuador and Albania. Mexico are No 40 and Japan No 50.

Russia has FIFA’s “complete trust,” Blatter told Putin, who has called the bribery probes an attempt to undo his country’s first hosting of the competition.

“Our support is especially important during the current geopolitical situation,” Blatter said. — Bloomberg