The Hand of God finally made amends after 31 years as Diego Maradona drew England in a dream 2018 World Cup group, although it will mean 4,066 travel miles for the team to distant corners of Russia.

In a twist of fate inside the State Kremlin Palace, the man assigned to draw from England’s pot was the Argentina football legend who sent England out of the 1986 World Cup after scoring one of the most infamous goals in history with his hand.

But he could not have picked a kinder group for Gareth Southgate’s team next summer when they will be pitted against Belgium, Tunisia and the World Cup debutants Panama. Despite low expectations after dismal showings in recent major tournaments, England have previously suffered only one defeat to any of those teams in a major tournament.

Play Video 3:48 England's World Cup chances assessed by Guardian writers – video

The potentially trickier obstacle will be long journeys to Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad. From England’s training base in the sleepy seaside town of Repino, on the Gulf of Finland, it will mean they travel more than 4,000 miles in the group stage alone. For England fans taking advantage of free train travel offered with World Cup tickets it would mean journeys of 19 hours, four hours and 18 hours, respectively.

Southgate insisted England would stick with the base they have already selected. The isolated four star ForRestMix hotel is considered ideal by the FA from a security perspective and the team will have sole use of the complex while the training ground five minutes away is well equipped.

“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,” said Southgate.

England open their campaign against Tunisia on 18 June in Volgograd, before playing Panama in Novgorod on 24 June and Belgium in Kaliningrad on 28 June.

World Cup fixtures: the full schedule for Russia 2018 Read more

Russia have been drawn in the same group – Group A – as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay, while the holders, Germany, are in Group F, alongside Mexico, Sweden and South Korea.

The five-time winners Brazil are in Group E, alongside Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia, while their South American rivals Argentina are in arguably the most intriguing group of all – Group D, which contains Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria.

Spain, who won the World Cup in 2010, are in Group B and will open their campaign against the Euro 2016 holders, Portugal. The other two teams in the group are Morocco and Iran.

France, who were crowned world champions in 1998, are in Group C with Australia, Peru and Denmark. Group H, meanwhile, contains Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, delivered the opening address inside a giant theatre hall in the Kremlin complex, before an array of famous former players accompanied by extravagantly dressed assistants sealed the fates of the 32 teams.

Q&A The World Cup 2018 draw Show Hide Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay

Group B: Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Iran

Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark

Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria

Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia

Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea

Group G: Belgium, Panama, Tunisia, England

Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia Japan

Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Snow fell all day in Moscow on Friday, whitening the domes atop Saint Basil’s Cathedral and transforming Red Square into a winter wonderland, complete with Christmas lights and an ice skating rink.

But the twinkling setting and jokes from the draw host Gary Lineker did not distract from the grim undertones that make Russia 2018 one of the most controversial sporting events in history.

Outdated attitudes on race, same sex relationships and human rights deserve to be challenged and the last time Russia hosted a major global sporting event was the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, which was marred by one of the most sophisticated state-sponsored doping programmes ever.

The International Olympic Committee will decide on 5 December whether Russia is to be allowed to send a team to the Winter Games in Pyeongchang next year. The country’s deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, used a one-hour address to the world’s media on Friday predominantly to launch a diatribe against his critics. Mutko, who is also the head of the Russian FA, was sports minister at a time when Russia was found to have manipulated anti-doping programmes by tampering with test tubes, replacing dirty urine samples with clean ones.

“People are checking for scratches on the test tubes?” he said. “Well, do that in the rest of the world and there’ll be scratches all over the place.”

The draw came at the end of a week when the New York Times published diaries of the whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, a former boss of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory. He suggested Mutko knew all about the systematic doping programme.

“We don’t know what the IOC is going to say; we hope that common sense will prevail,” said Mutko. “We believe that the presumption of innocence is a principle that has not been validated by anybody. This collective punishment seems to be in fashion these days.

“I’m happy to go to any court, to any disciplinary committee. I’ll be happy to talk about how there has never been and will never be any state programmes related to doping in this country.”

The FA chief executive, Martin Glenn, and chairman, Greg Clarke, wore rainbow badges on their suit lapels, and visiting fans will be permitted to fly rainbow flags inside the stadiums next summer in support of LGBT rights.

However, anti-gay sentiment remains strong here. A federal law was passed in 2013 that banned so-called propaganda of homosexuality to minors and has been widely criticised for preventing gay pride events or discussions of gay rights in public spaces where children might possibly be present.

There are also concerns that black players, their families and supporters could be subjected to racist abuse, particularly in some of the host cities beyond Moscow, where attitudes are less enlightened than the capital.

The World Cup begins on 14 June, with the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, and runs until 15 July, the day of the final, which will also be held at the Luzhniki Stadium.



