2026 World Cup draw: where to watch and event details | OneFootball

The draw for the first FIFA World Cup with 48 teams, which will be held from June 11 to July 19, 2026, in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, will take place on Friday (5th), at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, at 2 PM (Brasília time), surrounded by much anticipation.

Here is everything you need to know about how this draw will work.

Where to watch

The 2026 World Cup Draw will be broadcast by Globo, SporTV, and ge tv (YouTube).

Top seeds separated

The participating teams are divided into four pots, each containing 12 teams, and the order in which they are placed in each pot is determined by the FIFA world ranking.

Thus, one team is drawn from each pot until the 12 groups of four teams each are completed.

For the first time, FIFA has decided that the draw will be conducted so that the four highest-ranked countries have separate paths in the initial stages.

In this system, Spain, Argentina, France, and England cannot face each other before the semifinals if they finish first in their respective groups.

No team can share a group with another from the same confederation, except those from UEFA.

With 16 European teams qualified, there will be four groups that will necessarily have two UEFA teams.

The three host countries already know which group they have been placed in: the United States will be in Group D and will play two matches in Los Angeles and one in Seattle. Mexico will be in Group A and will play two games at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City (including the opening match on June 11) and one in Guadalajara. Canada will be in Group B, with one match in Toronto and two in Vancouver.

Additional knockout stage

As it is an expanded tournament, with 50% more participants than the 2022 Qatar World Cup, there will be many more games.

This edition includes an additional knockout stage, the round of 32, for which the top two teams from each of the 12 groups qualify, along with the eight best third-placed teams.

In other words, 72 matches will be played at the end of the group stage, and only 16 of the 48 teams will be eliminated.

Division of the pots

Pot 1: United States, Mexico, Canada, 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, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, plus four UEFA playoff winners and two intercontinental playoff winners.

The playoffs

The UEFA playoff involves 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams each. One team from each group qualifies for the World Cup.

The semifinals are played in a single match on March 26, and the final also in a single match on March 31.

Group A: Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina – Italy or Northern Ireland

Group B: Ukraine or Sweden – Poland or Albania

Group C: Slovakia or Kosovo – Turkey or Romania

Group D: Czech Republic or Ireland – Denmark or North Macedonia

The intercontinental playoff will be contested by six teams divided into two groups, with the first place from each group securing a direct spot in the World Cup.

The semifinals, in a single match, will be played on March 26, and the final, also in a single match, will be played on March 31. All matches will be held in Mexico.

The matchups will be between: New Caledonia or Jamaica vs. Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bolivia or Suriname vs. Iraq.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.