England will discover which of the world’s leading nations they will face when the draw for the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals is held on Monday.

The host nation will feature in Stage 1a at OVO Arena Wembley alongside the top seven seeds, meaning England men’s and women’s teams will each have THREE guaranteed huge matches against some of the top nations in the world, including the likes of China, Japan and France.

The draw will be carried out live from London’s tallest building, The Shard, starting at noon on Monday, 26 January.

Follow the draw live on the ITTF YouTube channel.

The draw will also be held at The Shard for Stage 1b, which is being played at the Copper Box Arena, with 56 men’s and 56 women’s teams – including Wales women – discovering their opponents.

How will the draws work?

Stage 1a – OVO Arena Wembley, 2-3 May

The purpose of Stage 1a is to determine seedings for Stage 2 (the Main Draw) – all teams in Stage 1a will progress to the Round of 32.

The draw comprises England plus the top 7 seeds, in ranking order as follows:

Men: 1 China, 2 France, 3 Sweden, 4 Japan, 5 Republic of Korea, 6 Germany, 7 Chinese Taipei, 8 England

Women: 1 China, 2 Japan, 3 Republic of Korea, 4 Germany, 5 France, 6 Chinese Taipei, 7 Romania, 8 England

Two groups (Groups 1 and 2) of four teams will be drawn in each of the men’s and women’s competitions.

Teams ranked 1 and 2 will be seeded as top of Group 1 and Group 2, respectively. Remaining teams will be drawn in pairs using the modified snake system. This means teams ranked 3 and 4 will be drawn into either Group 1 or Group 2, followed by teams ranked 5 and 6 being drawn into either group, and finally teams ranked 7 and 8 into either group.

Stage 1b – Copper Box Arena, 8 April – 1 May

Nations ranked 9-64 as follows:

Women’s teams: 9 Egypt, 10 Hong Kong China, 11 Brazil, 12 India, 13 Sweden, 14 Thailand, 15 Poland, 16 Portugal, 17 Australia, 18 USA, 19 Croatia, 20 Puerto Rico, 21 Singapore, 22 Chile, 23 Austria, 24 Italy, 25 Slovakia, 26 Hungary, 27 Spain, 28 Luxembourg, 29 Malaysia, 30 Nigeria, 31 Canada, 32 Serbia, 33 Ukraine, 34 Mexico, 35 Algeria, 36 Czechia, 37 South Africa, 38 Kazakhstan, 39 Netherlands, 40 Iran, 41 Uganda, 42 Tunisia, 43 Cuba, 44 French Polynesia, 45 Korea DPR, 46 Uzbekistan, 47 Madagascar, 48 Cook Islands, 49 Argentina, 50 Ghana, 51 Turkiye, 52 Angola, 53 Nauru, 54 Ethiopia, 55 Wales, 56 Guatemala, 57 Congo, 58 Dominican Republic, 59 Benin, 60 Rwanda, 61 Sri Lanka, 62 Macau China, 63 Mongolia, 64 Syria

Men’s teams: 9 Denmark, 10 Brazil, 11 Slovenia, 12 Portugal, 13 India, 14 Croatia, 15 Romania, 16 Australia, 17 Egypt, 18 Poland, 19 Iran, 20 USA, 21 Hong Kong China, 22 Canada, 23 Austria, 24 Nigeria, 25 Belgium, 26 Singapore, 27 Kazakhstan, 28 Argentina, 29 New Zealand, 30 Chile, 31 Serbia, 32 Algeria, 33 Slovakia, 34 Czechia, 35 Hungary, 36 Madagascar, 37 Puerto Rico, 38 Spain, 39 Mexico, 40 Tunisia, 41 Cuba, 42 New Caledonia, 43 Benin, 44 Morocco, 45 French Polynesia, 46 Thailand, 47 South Africa, 48 Malaysia, 49 Cote D’Ivoire, 50 Cameroon, 51 Togo, 52 Fiji Islands, 53 Saudi Arabia, 54 Angola, 55 Peru, 56 Moldova 57 Korea DPR, 58 Turkiye, 59 Guatemala, 60 Greece, 61 Qatar, 62 Bahrain, 63 Uzbekistan, 64 Mongolia

14 groups (Groups 3-16) of four teams will be drawn in each of the men’s and women’s competitions.

• Teams ranked 9 to 22 will be seeded as top of each group in number order.
• Teams ranked 23-26 will be drawn into Groups 13-16
• Teams ranked 27-30 will be drawn into Groups 9-12
• Teams ranked 33-33 will be drawn into Groups 6-8
• Teams ranked 34-36 will be drawn into Groups 3-5
• Remaining teams will be drawn similarly three or four at a time using the modified snake system

The teams finishing first in each of the 14 Groups will advance into Stage 2 (the Main Draw) at OVO Arena Wembley. Six second-placed teams will also qualify directly to the Main Draw, with selection based on the best ratio of wins to losses (first in team matches, then individual matches, then games and points, as far as is necessary to resolve the order).

The remaining eight second-placed teams will play a single Preliminary Round knockout drawn at random, with the four winners progressing to the Main Draw.

In total, 24 teams in each gender will qualify from Stage 1b to the Round of 32.