What to Expect from the 2026 World Cup Draw
The 2026 World Cup draw will take place on Friday, and with 48 teams involved and three host nations, this one is set to be more complicated than the usual name-out-of-a-bowl routine. The ceremony kicks off at the Kennedy Center in Washington at 17:00 GMT, complete with a full entertainment lineup. Expect appearances from Heidi Klum, Kevin Hart and Danny Ramirez, plus performances from Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger. The Village People will even close things out with "YMCA". US President Donald Trump is expected to attend, while Rio Ferdinand will do the actual draw process.
How the Draw Works
The draw will place the teams into 12 groups of four teams, with each group containing one team from each of the four pots. The hosts, Mexico, Canada, and the United States, have been placed into Pot 1. The rest of the pots are arranged by FIFA world rankings, with the remaining play-off winners automatically slotted into Pot 4.
In a new twist, the top four ranked teams — Spain, Argentina, France and England — are being kept apart in the bracket all the way to the semi-finals if they win their groups. FIFA says this is "in the interest of competitive balance".
Confederation rules still apply: no group can include more than one team from the same region outside Europe, and only two European countries may share a group.
Why Is This Draw So Complicated?
Because some qualifiers won’t be known until after the play-offs, the computer running the draw will be constantly checking for “deadlock” scenarios. Teams from Concacaf, for example, can’t be placed with the co-hosts, and certain play-off paths can only fit into specific combinations of European and African teams. This is where things may look random, but it’s just the system avoiding impossible group setups.
Who’s Still Fighting to Get In?
Wales, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Albania, Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey, Romania, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, North Macedonia, Bolivia, Suriname, Iraq, Jamaica, New Caledonia, and DR Congo. Each European play-off winner will enter Pot 4, making for some potentially brutal draws.
When Do Match Details Arrive?
Teams will know their opponents and match dates on Friday, but venues and kick-off times arrive a day later during FIFA’s broadcast on 6th December. The tournament itself starts 11th June 2026 at Mexico’s Azteca Stadium and finishes on 19th July at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
With so many teams, rules, and restrictions, Friday’s event won’t be simple. But with heavyweight nations separated, new teams debuting, and a computer fighting chaos in the background, the first 48-team World Cup is already living up to the scale of its ambition.
