The draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be held on Friday evening in Washington, USA.
Former Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand will conduct the draw. The 47-year-old will be joined by broadcaster Samantha Johnson and several sporting greats, including Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Aaron Judge and Shaquille O’Neal.
Date and Time
The final draw will take place on Friday, 5 December 2025 at 7 PM CAT.
Qualified Teams
The following 42 nations will be represented in the final draw:
Co-hosts: Canada, Mexico, USA
AFC: Australia, IR Iran, Japan, Jordan, Korea Republic, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan
CAF: Algeria, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia
Concacaf: Curaçao, Haiti, Panama
CONMEBOL: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay
OFC: New Zealand
UEFA: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland
Six of the 48 teams have yet to be confirmed and will only be known in March 2026.
Four will come from the 16-team UEFA play-offs involving Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine and Wales.
The remaining two places will be decided in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off Tournament, contested by Bolivia, Congo DR, Iraq, Jamaica, New Caledonia and Suriname.
Seeding
The 48 teams have been placed into four pots of 12 based primarily on FIFA world rankings. The only exceptions are the three hosts, who are automatically in pot one, and the teams that will qualify through the play-offs, who go into pot four.
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
Draw Procedure
The draw will begin with all the teams from pot 1 being drawn into groups A to L, followed by pots 2, 3 and 4 in that order.
For pot 1, Canada, Mexico and the USA – the host nations – will be identified by different coloured balls. When drawn, they will be assigned to position A1 for Mexico (green ball), B1 for Canada (red ball) and D1 for the USA (blue ball), as established in the match schedule released on 4 February 2024. The remaining nine teams in pot 1 will be identified by balls of the same colour and automatically placed in position 1 of the group they are drawn into.
TV Details
Live coverage will be available on FIFA.com and the FIFA World Cup social media channels. The draw will also be broadcast on SuperSport TV.
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