RIO DE JANEIRO — The 2014 World Cup begins to take shape Saturday when FIFA hosts the qualifying draw, laying out each nation's path to try to secure a spot in the tournament.
It will be the first major World Cup-related event in Brazil since 2007, when the South American nation was awarded the competition for the first time in 64 years.
As host, Brazil is the only nation that won't have to qualify, but 203 other teams will have to fight for the remaining 31 spots in qualifiers that run through November 2013.
Defending World Cup champion Spain will find out in which of the nine European groups it will play. The draw will also allocate the groups for Asia, Africa, Oceania and the North, Central America and Caribbean regions.
South America will not be included in the draw because the continent's nine teams will be placed in a single group. They will play each other twice, home and away, with the top four finishers securing a World Cup spot. The fifth-place team will advance to an intercontinental playoff.
The 2014 World Cup will be played from June 12-July 13, and the complete match schedule will be announced in October. The schedule was expected to be made public this week, but delays with Brazil's stadium construction, which led to indecision on which of the 12 cities would host the opener, have apparently forced organizers to delay the announcement.
Saturday's draw will take place amid protests from some Brazilians who have criticized the World Cup. Rights groups say construction work for the soccer competition and the 2016 Rio Olympics have come at a cost to some local residents who will benefit very little from the events. Most complaints come from those who are being evicted from their homes so infrastructure projects can be put in place.
There will be 166 countries participating in Saturday's draw, and their pot allocation will be based on the latest FIFA world rankings. FIFA said that it would not draw together Azerbaijan and Armenia or Russia and Georgia because of political conflicts, which could lead to fan violence during qualifying matches.