Football supporters were left baffled when coach Rio Ferdinand explained that Uzbekistan would be placed in Group K alongside Portugal and Colombia during the 2026 World Cup draw. The nation was selected by Aaron Judge near the end of pot three during a ceremony Friday night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Group I, consisting of France and Senegal, was the first alphabetically available group, and Ferdinand chose to put Uzbekistan in Group K instead, even though there were no conflicts and only two teams were included. The former Manchester United centre-back defended the decision, saying: “There are elements here so we’re going to draw Uzbekistan and put them in third place in Group K. And we’ve skipped (Group) I because there are teams that haven’t been drawn yet. So we’re going to wait for those teams to be drawn in the next pot. So we need to move on and we’ll wait for them.”
Norway and Panama were the only remaining teams, with Panama ultimately placed in Group L with England and Croatia, while Norway was placed in Group I with France and Senegal. This is because UEFA will only allow two countries to be in the same group for next summer’s tournament. The draw quickly progressed to Pot 4 soon after, but supporters were left baffled online by the decision to pair Uzbekistan with Portugal and Colombia.
One user wrote to X: “Can anyone explain why Portugal got Uzbekistan and not Norway?” Others questioned, “Why can’t Uzbekistan join the group with Senegal and France?” And the third person thought: “Hmm, why wasn’t Uzbekistan in Group I?”
Luckily, several social media users have weighed in to help clarify this puzzling situation. One person explained, “To secure the slots for Bolivia/Suriname/Iraq, we needed 2x Europe + an empty group in Africa.”
Meanwhile, another Reddit user posted: “It’s actually quite simple. Even before the draw started, it was known that the winner of the Iraq play-off would be placed in a group of two European teams and one African team due to the one team per federation rule. When Uzbekistan was drawn, the only group left where this was possible was Group I.”
According to FIFA’s tournament rules, “FIFA’s general principle is that, wherever possible, no group should contain more than one team from the same federation. This applies to all federations except UEFA, which is represented by 16 teams.”
“Each group must include at least one, but no more than two, UEFA teams. Therefore, 4 of the 12 groups will include 2 of the 16 UEFA teams (including the 4 playoff teams).”
Given that at the time of the draw, Group I already included France and Senegal, the only viable group that could accommodate two European teams and one African team, the addition of Uzbekistan would have created a conflict in the next stage of the draw.
