2026 World Cup draw: How to watch, teams, and everything else you need to know

The World Cup draw can determine a nation’s confidence ahead of football’s showpiece event.

On Friday, December 5, at 12pm ET (9am PT; 5pm GMT), the draw for next summer’s tournament in the U.S., Canada and Mexico takes place from the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington , D.C., with U.S. President Donald Trump expected to be in attendance.

With the tournament starting on June 11 and the draw being 188 days removed from the opening match, things will start to feel very real for the countries already sure of their places.

A special shoutout to those fans who bought tickets during early lotteries without knowing the teams involved. Good luck to them as they find out what fixtures they have tickets for. The match schedule, including kick-off times and venues, will be revealed the day after the draw, Saturday, December 6, FIFA confirmed.

Here’s what you can expect from the 2026 World Cup draw.

How to watch?

The draw will be live on FIFA.com and on FIFA’s YouTube channel. In the United Kingdom, it will be broadcast on the BBC and BBC iPlayer, while in the U.S., viewers can tune into Fox and Fubo (Stream Free Now).

How does it work?

The 48 competing countries will be split into 12 groups of four for the group stages.

Before the draw, teams will be seeded and divided into four pots based on their FIFA rankings as of November/December 2025. The three host countries will join the highest-ranked FIFA teams in Pot 1.

Teams will be randomly drawn from each pot and assigned to one of the 12 groups. However, teams from the same confederation cannot meet — except for UEFA. There can be up to two European teams per group.

With the first game of the 2026 World Cup taking place at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on June 11, Mexico have automatically been assigned to Group A.

Canada will play the second match in Toronto, so they are in Group B. The U.S., who are playing the third match in Los Angeles, will be in Group D. These are the only two games on June 12.

The highest-ranked team (Spain) and the second-highest-ranked team (Argentina), as well as the third-highest-ranked team (France) and the fourth-highest-ranked team (England), will be positioned into groups in opposite pathways. This means the two highest-ranked nations cannot meet until the final, should they win their group, but they could face the third or fourth best-ranked teams in the semi-final.

It is worth noting that as the World Cup has expanded from 32 teams to 48, eight of the 12 best third-place teams in the groups will advance to the new round of 32. The eight teams with the highest points total will progress, with goal difference and then goals scored determining the qualifiers, should a number of teams finish on the same points total.

What are the pots?

Holders Argentina are in Pot 1, along with England, the U.S. and the world’s top-ranked team, Spain. As the graphic below shows, there are plenty of countries in the other pots that could cause the top teams problems, such as Erling Haaland’s Norway and Mohamed Salah’s Egypt in Pot 3.

Has everyone qualified?

At the time of the draw, there will still be six spaces at the World Cup yet to be determined.

During March, a further four teams will qualify from the UEFA play-off qualifiers and two from the FIFA Confederation play-off qualifiers.

Sixteen teams are in UEFA’s play-offs, with four-time winners Italy needing to overcome Northern Ireland and then Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina to reach next year’s tournament.

Jamaica face New Caledonia in the Confederation play-off semi-finals, with the victors facing the seeded Congo DR for a place in North America. On the other side of the draw, Bolivia take on Suriname for the chance to meet Iraq in the other final.

All qualifiers will be placed into pot four, leading to some potentially tricky draws, such as four-time winners Italy, were they to progress.

Who are the lowest-ranked teams in the draw?

Four nations have qualified for their first World Cup. They are Uzbekistan (Pot 3) and Jordan, Cape Verde and Curacao (Pot 4).

The Caribbean island of Curacao, a nation of 185,000 people, became the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup after they progressed thanks to a goalless draw against Jamaica in Kingston.

But Curacao aren’t the lowest-ranked team in the draw. New Zealand are 86th in FIFA’s world rankings — four places below Curacao (82) and two below Haiti (84).

Haiti, DR Congo and Panama, have qualified before, but are still looking for their first World Cup victories.

This time around, with eight of the third-place teams progressing, it may only take one win to reach the knockout stages.

Who will be the team everyone will want to avoid?

Many fans will likely be hoping their team is drawn against one of the three host nations from Pot 1 to avoid the nine highest-rated FIFA nations. Although the UWMNT’s 5-1 thumping of Uruguay in Florida earlier this month suggests Mauricio Pochettino’s men will be difficult to beat on home soil.

Currently ranked 27th in the world, the Canadians are the lowest-ranked in Pot 1 and the team most opposition fans will be confident of taking on.

From the top-ranked nations in Pot 1, Germany have been knocked out of the group stages at the last two World Cups, although they reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2024.

Based on form and recent World Cup history, the most formidable opponents are likely to be holders Argentina and 2022 finalists France. World No 2 Argentina finished top of CONMEBOL qualifying, while France didn’t lose a game during their qualifying campaign.

Spain are European champions and the world’s No 1 team who boast Barcelona star Lamine Yamal in their ranks. No one will want to be drawn against one of the favourites to win the competition.

And then there’s England, who qualified with a 100 per cent record. Norway did, too, but England did not concede a single goal in their eight qualifying matches.

What about FIFA’s Peace prize?

The new FIFA Peace Prize will have its first winner, awarded by FIFA president Gianni Infantino on the day of the draw.

“In an increasingly unsettled and divided world, it’s fundamental to recognise the outstanding contribution of those who work hard to end conflicts and bring people together in a spirit of peace,” Infantino said in a FIFA statement, adding that the prize would “recognise the enormous efforts of those individuals who unite people, bringing hope for future generations”.

It is not yet known who the recipient will be, but as The Athletic’s Adam Crafton reported earlier this month, FIFA’s description “fits the framing of Trump that he and his allies wish the world to know, as well as the ‘President of Peace’ moniker he has bestowed upon himself”.

What else should we expect?

As well as the group draw and FIFA Peace Prize, the event usually entails speeches and musical performances.

The draw for the 1994 World Cup, the last time the tournament was held in the U.S., took place in the Las Vegas Convention Center and included performances by Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder and James Brown.

No musicians have yet been confirmed, but Colombian artist J Balvin performed during half-time of the FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey this summer.