GENEVA (AP) — The top four teams from Spain, Argentina, France and England will be recognized in next week’s 2026 World Cup draw and placed in separate sections of a new tennis-style seeding tournament.
FIFA announced the top four teams on Tuesday. Latest men’s ranking If they finish first in their respective round-robin groups, they will avoid each other until the semifinals of a June 11-July 19 tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Therefore, it is certain that Argentina, the defending champions with Lionel Messi, and Spain, the European champions with Lamine Yamal, will not face each other until the final at MetLife Stadium near New York.
“Two separate paths to the semi-finals have been established to ensure competitive balance,” FIFA said in a statement, with the aim of rewarding teams that consistently perform well and move up the world rankings.
In previous World Cups, whether or not a team would advance to the final tournament was determined by which group it was in.
The first 48-team World Cup draw will be held. December 5th at the Kennedy Center In the presence of US President Donald Trump in Washington DC.
Iran and Haiti are among the 42 teams that have already qualified, and FIFA expects those countries to play in the drawn locations regardless of their complicated political relationship with the United States.The 16 sites for the 104 games include 11 U.S. cities with NFL stadiums, three in Mexico and two in Canada.
Entries for the remaining six teams will be decided in March when the European and World play-off spots are scheduled, with all of these teams advancing from the bottom-place draw pot.
That means four-time champions Italy could be a dangerous option in next Friday’s draw, which will set the fixture schedule by dividing teams into 12 round-robin groups of four teams each.
Europe has a lineup of 16 teams, with a maximum of two teams per group. The other 32 teams in the tournament cannot be drawn in the same group as teams from the same continent.
FIFA said the three co-hosts will be among the top 12 seeds in the draw, which will take about 45 minutes during the hour-and-a-half show. The U.S. opens on June 12th against a team in Pot 3, then plays a team in Pot 2 and then a group stage match against a team in Pot 4.
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world cup draw
Pot 1: Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, USA, Mexico, Canada.
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia.
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.
Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Playoff Winner 1, European Playoff Winner 2, European Playoff Winner 3, European Playoff Winner 4, Intercontinental Playoff Winner 1, Intercontinental Playoff Winner 2.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
