WASHINGTON (AP) – The 2026 World Cup draw will be held Friday. kennedy centerfor the purpose of dividing 48 team field Divide into 12 groups of 4 people each. When the tournament begins, 32 teams will advance from the qualifying group to a single-elimination tournament.
The 12 round robin World Cup groups are designated as Group A, Group B… and so on up to Group L.
Here we will explain how the lottery works.
picking from the pot
The balls corresponding to the participating countries are divided into four pots of 12 each, with each group containing one team drawn from each pot. The pots are: In parentheses is each team’s current FIFA ranking.
Pot 1 — Spain (1), Argentina (2), France (3), England (4), Brazil (5), Portugal (6), Netherlands (7), Belgium (8), Germany (9), United States (14), Mexico (15), Canada (27).
Pot 2 — Croatia (10), Morocco (11), Colombia (13), Uruguay (16), Switzerland (17), Japan (18), Senegal (19), Iran (20), South Korea (22), Ecuador (23), Austria (24), Australia (26).
Pot 3 — Norway (29), Panama (30), Egypt (34), Algeria (35), Scotland (36), Paraguay (39), Tunisia (40), Ivory Coast (42), Uzbekistan (60), Qatar (51), Saudi Arabia (60), South Africa (61).
Pot 4 — Jordan (66), Cape Verde (68), Ghana (72), Curacao (82), Haiti (84), New Zealand (86), UEFA Playoffs A, UEFA Playoffs B, UEFA Playoffs C, UEFA Playoffs D, FIFA Playoffs 1, FIFA Playoffs 2.
Host countries United States, Mexico and Canada can enter Pot 1. This is an important perk as it means they won’t be in the same group as some of the top teams in the tournament. It has already been decided that Mexico will be in Group A, Canada in Group B, and the United States in Group D.
Additionally, the top four teams in the FIFA rankings (Spain, Argentina, France, and England) will be drawn. in such a way Even if they win their group, they probably won’t face each other before the semi-finals.
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Six of the balls in pot 4 do not correspond to a specific country. The six spots for the World Cup will not be decided until March. Four European teams will qualify in the UEFA Playoffs, and two additional FIFA Playoffs will feature teams from around the world.
The winner of UEFA Play Offs A will be either Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina. UEFA Playoffs B will feature Ukraine, Sweden, Poland and Albania; UEFA Playoffs C will feature Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo; UEFA Playoffs D will feature Denmark, North Macedonia, Czech Republic and Ireland.
FIFA Playoffs 1 will feature New Caledonia, Jamaica and Congo, while FIFA Playoffs 2 will feature Bolivia, Suriname and Iraq.
Wait, Italy hasn’t qualified yet?
Four-time World Cup winners Italy have actually not qualified since 2014. However, the Italian, currently ranked 12th in the world, is still shot Now to make it happen. So this week’s team will probably want to avoid being drawn into a group with the UEFA Playoffs A placeholders.
Additional constraints
The draw will be conducted with some additional requirements in mind.
— Each group must include at least one European team, but not more than two.
— With the exception of UEFA (Europe), two teams from the same federation cannot be in the same group. Other federations include AFC (Asia) and CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and the Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), and OFC (Oceania).
(World soccer has some oddities: Suriname plays in CONCACAF, Australia plays in AFC, but New Zealand is part of OFC.)
Possible groups
Although the pots are primarily ordered in descending order of FIFA rankings, there is still a lot of potential variation in how challenging the groups will be, especially since Pot 4 could feature either a traditional powerhouse like Italy or a World Cup newcomer like Curacao.
Argentina, Morocco, Norway and Italy could be a particularly difficult group if they qualify.
Canada, Austria, South Africa and New Zealand are perhaps less impressive.
When will I know the game schedule?
There will be a full announcement of the venue and match time set for Saturday, but the dates for the three host nations have already been decided. revealed.
Canada: June 12 (Toronto), June 18 (Vancouver), June 24 (Vancouver).
Mexico: June 11 (Mexico City), June 18 (Guadalajara), June 24 (Mexico City).
USA: June 12 (Los Angeles), June 19 (Seattle), June 25 (Los Angeles).
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