The procedure for the draw, was presented by FIFA at a press meeting the day before the draw. However, after having received objections from Italian officials, FIFA opted to slightly change their special Pot 2 rule, during the last 24 hours ahead of the draw. Before this rule was changed into the final wording given in the paragraph above, it had been intended to say: Pot 2 rule (dropped initial version): First two drawn European teams from Pot 2 shall, irrespectively of the alphabet order for the open groups, first be drawn into the two groups led by a seeded South American team (Argentina's Group B and Brazil's Group C); while the two drawn South American teams (Colombia and Uruguay) can not join Group B+C and shall instead be drawn into the first still open group being led by a seeded European team. This dropped initial wording, would have increased the risk for Italy in Group A to draw one of the difficult two South American teams, instead of one of the easier European teams from Pot 2; because for Italy to get paired with a European Pot 2 team it would have required the less likely event that all three first drawn teams from Pot 2 should be European. When FIFA accepted to change the Pot 2 rule into the final version presented at the televised draw, this lowered the chance for the Italian Group A to draw a South American Pot 2 team, from the 80% chance created by the initial wording to only a 33% chance (two out of six teams).
the procedure for the draw was presented by fifa at a press meeting the day before the draw however after having received objections from italian officials fifa opted to slightly change their special pot 2 rule during the last 24 hours ahead of the draw before this rule was changed into the final wording given in the paragraph above it had been intended to say pot 2 rule (dropped initial version) first two drawn european teams from pot 2 shall irrespectively of the alphabet order for the open groups first be drawn into the two groups led by a seeded south american team (argentina's group b and brazil's group c); while the two drawn south american teams (colombia and uruguay) can not join group b+c and shall instead be drawn into the first still open group being led by a seeded european team this dropped initial wording would have increased the risk for italy in group a to draw one of the difficult two south american teams instead of one of the easier european teams from pot 2; because for italy to get paired with a european pot 2 team it would have required the less likely event that all three first drawn teams from pot 2 should be european when fifa accepted to change the pot 2 rule into the final version presented at the televised draw this lowered the chance for the italian group a to draw a south american pot 2 team from the 80% chance created by the initial wording to only a 33% chance (two out of six teams)