Listen to the full interview via The Off The Ball Football Show podcast.

While all of the team's involved in Friday's World Cup draw will want to avoid getting placed into the dreaded Group of Death, there are other major issues concerning the 32 sides.

The size of Brazil, vast variations in temperature and the fact that Brazil (who will not play at the Maracana stadium unless they reach the final) will be playing games all over the country will have a knock-on effect on every team.

To delve into this, we spoke to South American football expert Tim Vickery.

"The locations and the kick off times is at least as important as who you're playing. This was always going to be a World Cup held in a country the size of a continent during winter. You're talking about major differences in temperature between the host cities. But then in comes the icy hand of domestic and international politics. 

"The original idea of going back to the old system of teams divided into four groups and playing games in that one group makes perfect sense but makes no political sense. Giving one region a monopoly on Brazil's group games became unacceptable. So everyone is moving around.  

"FIFA makes the vast majority of its money from TV rights and therefore want kick-offs at a time that are appropriate for its major market which is Europe. There are three kick off times per day and that means the early kick off has to start at 1pm Brazil time. To have some of these games in some of these cities at 1pm is really pushing it. 1pm in the south where winter bites is not a problem. But 1pm in the North and North-East will be very hot. No Brazilian league games in Brazil are ever held at that time of the day. You'll get a sauna and it'll be like when Jack Charlton complained about the heat at USA 94."

Vickery pointed out that if England are drawn in the wrong group, it will be a "nightmare" especially as they may have to move away from their original Rio de Janeiro base as games could be at the other end of the country.