FIFA announces procedures for 2026 World Cup draw

FIFA revealed Tuesday the procedures of the final draw for the 2026 World Cup, which will take place at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, the United States, on December 5.

The FIFA World Cup trophy. (Photo courtesy of FIFA)

With less than 200 days to go before the kick-off of the 48-team tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States, the three hosts and 39 qualified teams are allocated to four pots of 12 teams each, according to the FIFA Men's World Ranking issued on November 19. The two playoff tournament winners and four European playoff winners, which are yet to be decided, are allocated to pot 4.

The draw will begin with all the teams from pot 1 being drawn to groups A to L. It will then continue with pots 2, 3 and 4 in that order, FIFA said.

The position A1 has already been assigned to Mexico, B1 to Canada and D1 to the United States, while the remaining nine top-ranked teams will be automatically allocated to position 1 in their respective groups.

In order to have a balanced distribution of the teams, 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.

In principle, no group will have more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it. This applies to all confederations except UEFA, which is represented by 16 teams. Each group must have at least one, but no more than two UEFA teams drawn into it.

Following are the pots:

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

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

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

Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, European playoff winner A, B, C and D, FIFA playoff tournament winner 1 and 2.