Scotland's World Cup cry is bring it on after FIFA chief takes centre stage in gushing draw spectacle

Pot 4 team Haiti provide some novelty but will be no less dangerous for that. Les Grenadiers, ranked 84 in the world, line up against Steve Clarke’s side in either New York or Boston on Saturday June 13.

Morocco and Brazil make up Group C and the identity of these teams could prove cathartic for Clarke, who, although a veteran with Chelsea at the time, felt stung by being left out of Craig Brown’s plans at France ’98, when the Scots faced both these countries.

Scotland’s opening three games will all be on the east coast of America, which is good news for fans in terms of distance and cost but bad news, perhaps, for the players, who had wished to avoid the stifling heat. A preference was for the west coast, where a weather phenomenon known as 'June Gloom' keeps temperatures at a more bearable level.

Scotland will hope to avoid their own form of ‘June Gloom’ on the other side of the United States, co-hosts with Canada and Mexico. They will take on Morocco in either Boston or Philadelphia on June 19, 28 years almost to the day since they lost 3-0 to the African side in St Etienne in their last World Cup match to date. Scotland opened that tournament against Brazil and the teams meet in either Atlanta or Miami on June 24 for the fifth time at a World Cup.

It’s guaranteed to be box office against Carlo Ancelotti’s side. While the names might not roll off the tongue as readily as previous tournaments when they’ve come up against Scotland, Brazil can still boast world stars of the game in the likes of Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid and Barcelona’s Raphinha as well as Chelsea wunderkind Estevao. They can also call on Neymar Jr, who will still only be 33 by the time the tournament comes round.

He’s desperate to make his mark on another World Cup in the twilight of his career. He will be bidding to emulate Pele, to date the only Brazilian to score in four World Cups.

FIFA chief’s excruciating moment with Trump

Pele, who died days after the last World Cup, had his name evoked at Friday night’s draw by Donald Trump, the United States president, of all people. It was during an excruciating segment on stage at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, DC with Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president.

Come back Sepp Blatter, all is forgiven. No one could have been surprised that the draw for a tournament where one of the host nations is America would have put on such a gushing spectacle.

What did surprise was the extent to which Infantino was allowed to hold sway. Despite being head of an organisation that it’s always been claimed is avowedly non-political, he even conferred a peace award upon Trump.

The choreographed event was the opposite of the excitement and drama produced on the night when Scotland defeated Denmark to secure their place among the 42 teams who are guaranteed to be involved in the summer. It was nearly two hours after the draw kicked off when baseball star Aaron Judge finally pulled the ball containing Scotland’s name apart.

Scotland qualified from a Group C and they will seek to create history from a Group C by progressing from the group stage for the first-ever time at a major finals.

Although FIFA did their best to drain away the joy, it was hard to overstate the significance for the Scottish footballing public. Scotland is a football loving nation which often comes top in Europe in attendance per capita reports. Indeed, one was published as recently as last month by Uefa.

The World Cup exile has hurt. This was only the second time since 1989 and the draw for Italia ’90 that the Tartan Army watched knowing Scotland were guaranteed to be participating in the finals the following summer. Devotion to the game has not dimmed. But what a shot in the arm this will be and has already been. Children now can expect to be swept up in World Cup fever as the countdown to Scotland v Haiti begins.

As Jonathan Wilson writes in A New History of the World Cup, published earlier this year, the quadrennial tournament “provides collective memories that pervade more broadly and deeply than almost anything else”. So many football fans are introduced to the game through World Cups. Nearly everyone remembers watching their first tournament. Trust Infantino to ladle on the hyperbole when it isn’t even necessary. “It will be the greatest FIFA event ever, the greatest event mankind has seen and will ever see,” he told Trump.

Scotland were ostensibly involved in the last draw for Qatar but only in the same way as Wales and Northern Ireland and other countries such as Denmark, condemned by Clarke’s side to the agonies of the play-offs, were involved this time around.

Interestingly, FIFA invited even the managers from those countries who still haven’t rubber-stamped their qualification. Northern Ireland’s Michael O’Neill, once pursued by Scotland of course, must have felt like a contestant on a Saturday night television game show as potential prizes were paraded in front of him. This is what you could win…Canada, Switzerland and Qatar in Group B in his case if Northern Ireland can negotiate the play-offs.

But Scotland know they are there. Clarke welcomed the fact there is no other European side in the group and offered a typically withering assessment of the unnecessary preamble. “Took a while to get to the draw, mind,” he told BBC Scotland.

He is aware there’s much work to do, including finding a satisfactory base. Clarke is already Scotland’s greatest-ever manager by dint of leading the team to three major finals. Could becoming the first to take Scotland beyond the group stage now lie within his grasp?