2026 World Cup draw – how it works, start time, pots, dates and more | OneFootball

The World Cup draw is taking place on Friday evening, and the participating nations will finally find out their groups for the flagship event next year, taking place in the United States of America, Mexico and Canada.

The draw will take place at 5pm UK time.

World Cup 2026 draw: Confirmed pots

Pot 1

Pot 2

Pot 3

Pot 4

42 of the 48 teams have confirmed their place, and the other six will be finalised during the March international break via four European play-offs and a two-path inter-confederation play-off tournament. Those six play-off winners are all assigned to pot 4.

Perennial World Cup victors Italy, who have won the tournament four times but shockingly not taken part since 2014, will need to get past Northern Ireland, followed by Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina to book their place.

There has been a new rule introduced for this World Cup which means that the top four seeded teams – Spain, Argentina, France, England – cannot meet until at least the semi-final stage (assuming each country tops their group).

This rule is already in place at Wimbledon and is thought to guarantee mega-clashes late in the tournament.

“To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi‑finals have been established,” Fifa said in a statement.

“This will ensure that, should they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams will not meet before the final.”

Each of the 12 groups will contain one team from pot one, pot two, pot three and pot four.

No group can contain more than one team from the same confederation, with the exception of UEFA. There must be at least one, but no more than two European teams in each group.

From the home nations, England are in pot one, Scotland are in pot three, and – if they qualify – Wales, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland – would be in pot four.

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

Canada will play the second match in Toronto, and are in Group B. The U.S., who will play the third match in Los Angeles, will be in Group D. These particular placings are all preset as the countries are hosts.

Because the World Cup has expanded from 32 teams to 48, eight of the 12 best third-place teams in the groups will now advance to the new round of 32.

This has been criticised, with some asking the question, ‘what is the point of the group stage?’ It may well be enough that only one win in the group stage can take you through to the knockout rounds.

FIFA must be wary of the dangers of this new format. Fans will very quickly realise if the tournament is lacking the usual competitive edge, or if a lot of games are too one-sided.

Four nations have qualified for their first ever World Cup; Curacao, Jordan, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan.

The island of Curacao is the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup. Staggeringly, it contains only 155,000 people.

The draw will be available to watch live on FIFA.com and on FIFA’s YouTube channel. In the United Kingdom, it will air on the BBC and BBC iPlayer.

Donald Trump is expected to feature, as well as a host of musical performers and entertainers.