Thomas Tuchel to start England job three weeks EARLY as former Chelsea boss will attend World Cup qualifying draw

THOMAS TUCHEL will begin his England duties three weeks early – after receiving the green light to attend the 2026 World Cup draw.

German Three Lions chief Tuchel had not been expected to take up any England role until the start of his 18 month contract on January 1.

It was suspected that there may have been issues with his contract position following his summer departure from Bayern Munich.

But Tuchel will now headline the FA delegation when Wembley chiefs travel to Zurich on December 13 for the start of the European road to the World Cup to be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Tuchel’s participation in the post-draw interview round will represent his first formal involvement in the national team – while he may also discover the opponents for his debut match.

England are one of the 12 top seeds in the draw to help decide the 16 European places at the tournament.

Six of the groups will contain four teams, with the rest made up of five sides.

However, with four of the smaller groups set aside for the winners of the Nations League A quarter-finals – being played in March – England have a 75 per cent chance of being in one of the five-team groups.

Those groups are scheduled to see matches played in March and June, whereas the four-team sections will be entirely compressed into the autumn breaks in September, October and November.

Fifa will announce the fixtures schedule soon after the draw and it could mean Tuchel’s first match in charge is the opening World Cup qualifier.

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The former PSG boss had previously been blocked from attending the draw after being appointed in his new job two months ago.

That could be against second seeds Wales, with Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland all possible pot three opponents.

The 12 group winners will gain automatic qualification, with the runners up joined by four teams from the Nations League to play off the for the remaining places.

As a top ranking side, England have been drawn in Pot 1 with Nations League quarter-finalists Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Euro winners Spain.

What are the World Cup European Qualifying pots?

Pot 1

• Spain
• Germany
• Portugal
• France
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Denmark
• Croatia
• England
• Belgium
• Switzerland
• Austria

Pot 2

• Ukraine
• Sweden
• Turkey
• Wales
• Hungary
• Serbia
• Poland
• Greece
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Czech Republic
• Norway

Pot 3

• Scotland
• Slovenia
• Republic of Ireland
• Albania
• North Macedonia
• Georgia
• Finland
• Iceland
• Northern Ireland
• Montenegro
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Israel

Pot 4

• Bulgaria
• Luxembourg
• Kosovo
• Belarus
• Armenia
• Kazakhstan
• Azerbaijan
• Estonia
• Cyprus
• Faroe Islands
• Latvia
• Lithuania

Pot 5

• Moldova
• Malta
• Andorra
• Gibraltar
• Liechtenstein
• San Marino