World Cup 2026 draw: Date, start time, expected pots and who has qualified? | OneFootball

The draw for the 2026 World Cup is not far away.

With the final qualification play-offs now set, we are one step closer to discovering exactly who the likes of England, Scotland and Brazil will face in North America next year.

Wales must overcome Bosnia-Herzegovina to host the victor of Italy’s clash with Northern Ireland as they target a second World Cup in a row. Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, will go to Czech Republic ahead of a potential home tie against Denmark or North Macedonia.

The tournament will be the first to feature 48 teams, expanded from 32 in Qatar, and will also be the first World Cup to be hosted by three countries. The majority of 104 games will be staged in the USA (78), with Mexico and Canada hosting 13 each.

The World Cup will begin on 11 June, 2026 in Mexico’s historic Azteca Stadium, the scene of Brazil’s 1970 glory inspired by Pele and Argentina’s success in 1986 led by Diego Maradona.

It will conclude with the final on 19 July at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

When is the World Cup 2026 draw?

The draw for World Cup 2026 will take place at 5pm GMT/12pm EST on Friday 5 December, at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. The US president Donald Trump is expected to be in attendance.

How will the World Cup draw work?

The 48 nations will be divided into 12 groups containing four teams each, one from each of four draw pots.

Pot one will contain the three host nations – USA, Canada and Mexico – plus the nine top countries in the Fifa world rankings who have qualified for the tournament. Already, Mexico have been assigned Group A, Canada to Group B and the USA to Group D.

Pots two, three and four will contain the next 12 best-ranked sides in order so that, theoretically, the groups will be balanced and the best teams will be kept separate until the knockout rounds.

Teams from the same confederation will be kept apart in the group stage, except for Europe where there are more teams (16) than groups. No group will have more than two European nations.

Donald Trump is expected to be front and centre of the tournament (Getty Images)

Now that we know the identity 42 of the 48 teams heading to the World Cup, the four pots for the draw (each with 12 teams) are largely set. As mentioned above, pot one contains the three hosts (Mexico, Canada and the USA, already assigned to Group A, B and D respectively), plus the next nine highest-ranked teams, with the rankings then determining the other three pots.

The only spanner in the works is that Fifa are yet to confirm whether the remaining six qualifiers (four via the European play-offs and two via the inter-confederation play-offs), who won’t be known before the draw takes place, will be automatically slotted into pot four as in previous World Cups, or whether the ranking of the highest-ranked team in each play-off path will be used to determine their pot – as suggested here.

If the former system is maintained, then this is how the pots would look:

Pot 2

Pot 3

Pot 4

How the new World Cup format works

The top two finishers in each group will qualify automatically for the last-32, along with the eight best third-placed teams.

The ranking of the third-placed teams will be determined by points, then goal difference, then goals scored. If two or more teams are still level, then “team conduct scores” will come into play (a yellow card is minus one point, a red card via two yellow cards is minus three points, and a straight red card is minus four). If still equal, the team with the highest world ranking will progress.

How are World Cup places allocated?

Each continental confederation has a set number of nations taking part in the World Cup to decide the first 46 spots. Then an inter-confederation play-off competition will decide the remaining two places.

Uefa (Europe): 16 spots

CAF (Africa): 9 spots

AFC (Asia): 8 spots

Conmebol (South America): 6 spots

OFC (Oceania): 1 spot

An inter-confederation play-off competition will take place to decide which two additional teams will qualify. Six nations will enter the play-offs: one from CAF, one from AFC, one from OFC, one from Conmebol and two from Concacaf, competing for the last two spots at the World Cup. The inter-confederation play-offs take place in March.