On Friday (12/5), the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) will hold the group draw for the 2026 World Cup. The tournament will be held from June 11 to July 19 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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Learn about the 2026 World Cup draw:
Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, United States, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, and Australia.
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, the four winners of the European repechage and the two seeds in the global repechage.
How is the World Cup draw done?
Pots are formed based on FIFA rankings. Brazil, for example, was fifth in the South American qualifiers, but will be in Pot 1, because they are one of the top-ranked teams.
The only exception is in the case of teams that will compete in a replay. Regardless of their position in the FIFA rankings, these teams will be in Pot 4.
In each pot, the two best-seeded teams will be drawn into opposite groups, with the only possible meeting being in the final. In the first pot, this applies to Spain and Argentina.
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Learn about the pots and understand the 2026 World Cup draw
With 48 teams in this edition, each of the 12 groups in the preliminary stage will include four teams. The best two teams in each group qualify for the knockout stage, in addition to the eight third-placed teams with the best performance.
When the draw is made, the host nation’s balls will be colored: Mexico (green), Canada (red), and the United States (blue). These teams have already been previously identified as being seeded into Groups A, B and D respectively. Other selections will be represented by white dots and directed to the remaining groups.
The other pots will follow the traditional ritual, meaning each team will be allocated to groups A to L, as long as there is no other team from the same continent. If so, you will move to the next group. The exception is teams from Europe.