I've seen the six pots for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Semi-Final Allocation Draw, which is due to take place on Tuesday 25 January at 12:00 CET live from Palazzo Madama e Casaforte degli Acaja (Madama Palace), Turin.
The Semi-Final Allocation Draw will take place on Tuesday 25 January at 12:00 CET live from Palazzo Madama e Casaforte degli Acaja (Madama Palace), Turin, alongside a ceremony which sees the Host City Insignia pass from previous hosts Rotterdam to our Italian friends.
eurovision.tv
The allocation of the countries to the pots is interesting. Pots 1, 2 and 3 are quite straightforward:
Pot 1: Former Yugoslavia + Albania
Pot 2: Nordic + Australia
Pot 3: Former USSR (non Baltic) + Israel
The remaining three pots are less obvious, but I notice the following
Pot 4: Greece and Cyprus (famous pair) + various others (Malta, Bulgaria, Portugal, San Marino)
Pot 5: Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) + Moldova / Romania pairing (they are now very much another Greece-Cyprus partnership) + Poland
Pot 6: Benelux + Central Europe (Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic) + Ireland.
I'm mystified as to the allocation of Poland and Ireland. I'd have thought Poland ought to be in Pot 6 just like Austria, Switzerland and Czech Republic (Central Europe) and Ireland ought to be in Pot 5.
As for putting Malta, Bulgaria, Portugal, San Marino into Pot 4 with Greece and Cyprus, I see no logic whatsoever. Obviously Malta, Bulgaria, Portugal, San Marino had to be put somewhere, but this little group seems a bit random to me.
Interestingly, each pot has six countries, so that's six equal sized pots (6 x 6 = 36 = the number of countries which need to battle their way through one of the semi-finals). You can't get much fairer than that.