The draw in Washington determined 12 brackets for the first 48-team World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
On Friday, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) held a draw to determine the 12 classifications for the 2026 World Cup in Washington. The Brazilian team was distributed to the third group, where it will compete with the teams of Morocco, Haiti, and Scotland.
Brazil’s first match in the tournament is scheduled to be on June 13, Saturday, against the Moroccan team. The team’s second match will be on Friday, June 19, against Haiti. Brazil’s participation in the group stage will end on Wednesday, June 24, with a duel against Scotland.
The confrontations in the Brazilian bracket will be held in cities located in the eastern region of the United States. Possible locations include Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York/New Jersey and Philadelphia. The full calendar of matches will be made available by FIFA on the day following the draw.
The World Cup finals are scheduled to open on June 11, with a match between Mexico and South Africa, at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. The final match of the tournament is scheduled to be held next July 19 at MetLife Stadium, located in New Jersey, near New York.
The 2026 tournament will be the first to feature 48 teams, an increase in the format that will be jointly hosted by three countries: the United States, Canada and Mexico. As a result of this expansion, the first phase of the competition will be organized into 12 groups, each consisting of four teams. The classification system for the knockout stage will determine the qualification of the top two teams from each group, in addition to the eight best third-placed teams overall.
If Brazil secures first place in its group, the next competitor in the knockout stage will be the second-place finisher in Group F, consisting of the Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia and a team yet to be determined through the European qualifiers (which includes Ukraine, Sweden, Poland and Albania).
At the time of the draw on Friday, the composition of the participants had not yet been fully determined. Forty-two teams have already secured places. The remaining six places will be filled in March, through two run-off rounds: 16 teams will compete for four European places, and six more teams from different continents will compete for the last two available places.
Configure all groups
The format of the first stage was as follows:
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Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Europe D Repechage (Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark or North Macedonia).
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Group B: Canada, Europe: Reconstruction (Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales or Bosnia), Qatar and Switzerland.
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Group C: BrazilMorocco, Haiti and Scotland.
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Group D: United States, Paraguay, Australia, Europe C Repechage (Türkiye, Romania, Slovakia, Kosovo).
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Group E: Germany, Curaçao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador.
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Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Europe B (Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Albania) and Tunisia.
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Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran and New Zealand.
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Group H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay.
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First group: France, Senegal, re-continents 2 (Bolivia, Suriname or Iraq) and Norway.
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Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria and Jordan.
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Group K: Portugal, re-continents 1 (DR Congo, Jamaica or New Caledonia) Uzbekistan and Colombia.
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Group for: England, Croatia, Ghana and Panama.
FIFA will release the full schedule for the tournament on Saturday, including the dates and locations of all matches. The announcement will be made via a live broadcast, with the participation of former players and analysts, scheduled for 2pm (Brasilia time).
Determining locations and times for each engagement will take into account the different time zones of the countries involved. FIFA’s goal is to ensure the best conditions for teams and fans, and to facilitate attendance of live matches in different regions of the planet.