How does the 2026 World Cup draw work?

Tom Weber

• 28 Nov 2025 12:51 CST
• 8 min read

Analysis

The draw for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico is now only a few days away.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC will play host to this quadrennial event at 6 pm CET on Friday, 5 December, to determine who the 48 nations competing in next year's World Cup will face.

The 2026 edition of FIFA's showpiece event will feature an unprecedented 12 groups, and football's governing body has even altered its draw procedure to ensure that the most prestigious clashes will only take place in the latter stages of the tournament.

As part of a tennis-style seeding process, FIFA has determined that the four highest-ranked countries in the world - Spain, Argentina, France and England - will not face each other until the semi-finals if they finish top of their respective groups and get that far.

The World Cup final will take place on Sunday, 19 July 2026 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Argentina are the defending champions after triumphing in Qatar in 2022.

How does the World Cup draw work?

The initial phase of World Cup qualifying has concluded, and 42 of the final 48 teams are known. The final six participants will be discovered in the playoffs in March, but the World Cup draw will nevertheless already take place on 5 December.

The teams for the 12 groups will be drawn from four pots. Pot 1 contains the three hosts - Canada, Mexico and the USA - as well as the nine highest-ranked nations in the world.

The remaining teams have been allocated to Pots 2, 3 and 4 based on their FIFA ranking. The as-yet-unknown six playoff winners have been automatically put into Pot 4.

Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany

Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, IR Iran, Korea Republic, Ecuador, Austria, Australia

Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa

Pot 4: Jordan, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Play-Off A, B, C and D, FIFA Play-Off Tournament 1 and 2

Initially, all Pot 1 teams will be drawn to Groups A to L. The same procedure will then repeat for Pots 2,3 and 4.

The host countries already know their schedule, which was outlined in 2024, and will therefore be given different-coloured balls in the draw. Mexico will be green and the first country to be drawn, followed by Canada in red and the USA in blue.

The remaining teams will all have the same colour (white).

As alluded to above, FIFA has changed its system to prevent the world's best teams from meeting too early in the competition, which it claims will "ensure competitive balance."

FIFA's explanation reads as follows: "To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established when developing the match schedule.

"In order to have a balanced distribution of the teams, the four highest-ranked teams in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s Ranking, when drawn, will have the following constraints: the highest-ranked team (Spain) and the second highest-ranked team (Argentina) will be randomly drawn into opposite pathways, and the same principle will apply to the third (France) and fourth (England) highest-ranked teams.

"This will ensure that, should they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams will not meet before the final."

Because of the large number of UEFA nations (16) in the tournament, it will be the only confederation where more than one team can be drawn into a group, up to a maximum of two. The other confederations will only have one country per group.

Once all the Pot 1 teams have been drawn, the teams from the remaining pots will be assigned a predefined position within each group. These positions look as follows:

Group A: Mexico, Pot 3, Pot 2, Pot 4

Group B: Canada, Pot 4, Pot 3, Pot 2

Group C: Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 4, Pot 3

Group D: USA, Pot 3, Pot 2, Pot 4

Group E: Pot 1, Pot 4, Pot 3, Pot 2

Group F: Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 4, Pot 3

Group G: Pot 1, Pot 3, Pot 2, Pot 4

Group H: Pot 1, Pot 4, Pot 3, Pot 2

Group I: Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 4, Pot 3

Group J: Pot 1, Pot 3, Pot 2, Pot 4

Group K: Pot 1, Pot 4, Pot 3, Pot 2

Group L: Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 4, Pot 3

Mexico will kick off the tournament on 11 June against a team from Pot 3 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. On 18 June, El Tri will face a team from Pot 2 at the Estadio Akron near Guadalajara and then return to Mexico City for a clash against a Pot 4 team on 24 June.

A day after the 11 June opener, the United States will face a team from Pot 3 at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles. Clashes against a Pot 2 team on 19 June at Lumen Field in Seattle and a Pot 4 team on 25 June back at SoFi will follow.

Canada will start the tournament at BMO Field in Toronto on June 12 against a team from Pot 4 before twice playing at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver against teams from Pot 3 and Pot 2 on 18 June and 24 June.

The day after the draw, on Saturday, 6 December, FIFA will reveal its updated match schedule for the tournament. The draw itself should take no longer than 45 minutes, but the entire event surrounding the draw is expected to last an hour and a half.

World Cup draw controversy

The upcoming draw for the 2026 World Cup is unlikely to be without controversy as the IR Iran has announced that it will boycott the event after several members of the country's delegation were denied visas to enter the US.

“We have informed FIFA that the decisions taken have nothing to do with sports, and the members of the Iranian delegation will not participate in the World Cup draw,” a spokesperson for the federation told state television.

Mehdi Taj, president of Iran's federation, believes that this is a politically motivated decision. “We have told the head of FIFA, Mr [Gianni] Infantino, that it is purely a political position and that FIFA must tell them [the US] to desist from this behaviour,” he thundered.

Although not every member of Iran's delegation failed to get a visa, the federation has taken the decision not to attend the draw altogether. Iran, as well as fellow World Cup participant Haiti, was hit by a travel ban US president Donald Trump signed in June.

The State Department insists that it will not grant special exemptions to would-be travellers from these countries, which comes amid concerns that certain fans will not be given entry to the US, despite FIFA and the US announcing a fast-track visa system for people with valid tickets.

“Your ticket is not a visa. It doesn’t guarantee admission to the US,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this month. “It guarantees you an expedited appointment.

"You’re still going to go through the same vetting. We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get. The only difference here is we’re moving them up in the queue.”

What are the World Cup playoffs?

As alluded to above, there are still six open spots for the 2026 World Cup, which are reserved for the winners of the playoffs in March. These six winners will comprise four UEFA nations and two countries from the other confederations.

The inter-confederation playoffs will take place on neutral ground in host nation Mexico and will pit New Caledonia against Jamaica, with the winners facing Congo DR, and Bolivia against Suriname, with the winners facing Iraq.

The UEFA playoffs will have four pathways. Path A sees Italy host Northern Ireland and Wales host Bosnia and Herzegovina. The final of Path A will be hosted by the winner of Wales vs Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Path B, Ukraine take on Sweden and Poland welcome Albania, with the winners from the first fixture hosting the final. Path C pits Turkey against Romania and Slovenia against Kosovo. Again, the winners of the first match will host the final.

Finally, in Path D, Denmark host North Macedonia and the Czech Republic hosts the Republic of Ireland, with the final hosted by the winner of the latter game.

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