TThe group stage draw for the 2026 World Cup USA, Canada and Mexico will be held on Friday, December 5th. The lottery will be held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and will determine the next World Cup for 48 teams, excluding those who qualify for the playoffs.
As with all draws, some teams will be luckier than others depending on the combination. Certainly none of them will want to play against Morocco, one of the great revelations of Qatar 2022, who have arrived for the tournament and are placed in Pot 2. The Atlas Lions will be one of the “bogey teams” in the draw.
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Why is Morocco in pot 2?
It’s for a simple reason. FIFA has established a ranking of the best teams of the moment. Morocco are ranked 11th, but the hosts have three spots in the top seed pot and the top teams in the FIFA rankings have nine spots. This means Croatia and Morocco will automatically be in Pot 2, while Italy will need to go through the playoffs to get into Pot 4, even though they are ranked 12th.
Therefore, the teams that could end up in pot 1 of the lottery are the ones that will be avoided by the higher seeds.
Why are there seeds in the World Cup draw?
The World Cup draw will involve a large number of seeded teams to keep the groups balanced at the beginning so that there is no imbalance between the groups. This is why the best teams are placed in pot 1 along with the host. Next best team in pot 2. Continue until pots 3 and 4 are completed for all teams.
Pot 1: USA, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, France, UK, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany. 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 + 4 UEFA play-off qualifiers, 2 inter-federation qualifiers
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