The 48 teams that will qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will learn who and where they will be playing their group stage matches on Friday, with the World Cup Draw taking place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., at 12 p.m. ET.
The final draw will split the World Cup’s first-ever 48-team field into 12 groups of four teams. To do so, the 42 nations that have already qualified, along with the final six that will be determined through a series of play-offs, will be divided into four pots of 12 teams each.
The most recent FIFA men’s world rankings were used to create the pots. One team from each of the four pots will be randomly selected to fill out each of the 12 groups:
2026 FIFA World Cup Draw Pots
- Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, 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, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
- Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, European play-off winners A, B, C, and D, FIFA play-off tournament winners 1, 2
Procedures stipulate that co-hosts Canada, Mexico, and the United States (USMNT) are placed in Pot 1, considering they received automatic qualification to the tournament as hosts.
Mexico will be placed in Group A, as they will play the competition’s opening match on June 11 at the famed Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Canada will be placed in Group B and will open their tournament on June 12 in Toronto. The USMNT will also play its first match on June 12 in Group D at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
To ensure competitive balance throughout the tournament, FIFA has devised two separate pathways to the semifinals. When drawing the four highest-ranked teams, No. 1-ranked Spain and No. 2-ranked Argentina will be placed into opposite pathways. The same applies to Nos. 3 France and 4 England.
That means that Spain and Argentina (or France and England) cannot meet until the World Cup Final, which takes place on July 19 at MetLife Stadium, just outside of New York City.
After the groups are chosen, FIFA will release the complete group-stage match schedule on Saturday.
Friday’s draw will be streamed live worldwide on FIFA.com. AmNewYork will also be at the Kennedy Center, providing live updates.
