⏪ 2026 World Cup draw confirmed with England and Croatia in same group | OneFootball

Coverage of the 2026 World Cup draw, with 42 teams and those still in the playoffs awaiting their fate.

That's all we have after a marathon event and draw.

The road to the World Cup final has been set!

The first game of the 2026 World Cup will take place on Thursday, June 11 between co-hosts Mexico and South Africa.

It will be the record third time the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City kicks off a tournament after 1970 and 1986.

That was quite the draw, but we got there in the end.

There is some very tasty groups there with Scotland being handed a very hard draw and France being drawn with Senegal and Norway.

England have a tough group too, but should be confident of a first-place finish.

Spain vs. Uruguay already looks like a game of the group stages.

Group A: Mexico, Korea Republic, South Africa, UEFA Playoff Winner D

Group B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar, UEFA Playoff Winner A

Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, Haiti

Group D: USA, Australia, Paraguay, UEFA Playoff Winner C

Group E: Germany, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Curacao

Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, UEFA Playoff Winner B

Group G: Belgium, Iran, Egypt, New Zealand

Group H: Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde

Group I: France, Senegal, Norway, Intercontinental Playoff Winner 2

Group J: Argentina, Austria, Algeria, Jordan

Group K: Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Intercontinental Playoff Winner 1

Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana

UEFA Playoff winners:

A: Italy/Northern Ireland/Wales/Bosnia

B:Ukraine/Sweden/Poland/Albania

C: Slovakia/Kosovo/Turkey/Romania

D: Ireland/Czechia/Denmark/North Macedonia

Our fourth and final pot is here: Jordan, Cape Verde, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, UEFA Playoff winner A, UEFA Playoff winner B, UEFA Playoff winner C, UEFA Playoff winner D, Intercontinental Playoff Winner A (Congo DR vs. Jamaica/New Caledonia), Intercontinental Playoff Winner 2 (Iraq vs. Boliva/Suriname)

Group I looks very much like the fabled "Group of Death".

You love to see it.

Group A: Mexico, Korea Republic, South Africa

Group B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar

Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Scotland

Group D: USA, Australia, Paraguay

Group E: Germany, Ecuador, Ivory Coast

Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia

Group G: Belgium, Iran, Egypt

Group H: Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia

Group I: France, Senegal, Norway

Group J: Argentina, Austria, Algeria

Group K: Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan

Group L: England, Croatia, Panama

A first tournament for Uzbekistan, coached by 2006-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro.

England cannot draw Scotland or Norway, which is a big plus given the form of Erling Haaland and co. in qualifying.

Time for Pot 3 and here are the teams:

Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa

Group A: Mexico, Korea Republic

Group B: Canada, Switzerland

Group C: Brazil, Morocco

Group D: USA, Australia

Group E: Germany, Ecuador

Group F: Netherlands, Japan

Group G: Belgium, Iran

Group H: Spain, Uruguay

Group I: France, Senegal

Group J: Argentina, Austria

Group K: Portugal, Colombia

Group L: England, Croatia

Bar UEFA, no country can be in the same group as another from their confederation.

UEFA can have a maximum of two.

Pot 2 coming up and here are the teams:

Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia

England's first game will be in either Dallas or Toronto on June 7.

Group A: Mexico

Group B: Canada

Group C: Brazil

Group D: USA

Group E: Germany

Group F: Netherlands

Group G: Belgium

Group H: Spain

Group I: France

Group J: Argentina

Group K: Portugal

Group L: England

The top two ranked sides, Spain and Argentina, are on opposite sides of the draw, and can only meet in the final if they both win their groups

Same situation for France and England.

This will just be putting the nine top ranked nations into the other groups with USA, Canada and Mexico already confirmed.

Pot 1 here we go.

In a shock turn of events, the FIFA World Cup draw is about to break out at the FIFA World Cup draw.

Here comes Canadian ice hockey icon Wayne Gretzky, New York Yankee Aaron Judge, basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal and NFL great Tom Brady.

These are the helpers for the draw. Of course.

In Brady's weak defence, he is involved with Birmingham City.

Rio's gone back to school to learn the rules of the draw in another skit of questionable humour.

Wonder what all the national team managers make of this?

Yes, this is still the FIFA World Cup draw.

Broadcaster Samantha Johnson is here too, and is just a little bit smoother than Rio.

Matthew McConaughey is giving Ferdinand advice in this skit too.

Supposedly he's an ambassador for the tournament. All a bit surreal.

Here comes the real conductor of the draw...Rio Ferdinand!

And one truly cringe-worthy promo skit video of him and Infantino on the phone discussing the draw.

Lauryn Hill is now performing. That was not advertised but she is far better than the official World Cup song.

An iconic player for both Atlético and Real, the striker scored over 300 goals combined for the two Madrid giants.

Football royalty.

The draw has been paused and we're now hearing from Mexico legend Hugo Sánchez.

He played in three World Cups including a home one in 1986, where Mexico made the quarter-finals.

Group A: Mexico

Group B: Canada

Group D: USA

The three leaders pull their countries out.

All for show, and Infantino then gets a selfie with them.

One for the Instagram, Gianni.

But one last look at Trump and his much-deserved award!

Change of plans. The draw is happening right now.

Trump, Claudia Sheinbaum and Mark Carney are out to do it seems?

What happened to Rio Ferdinand being the conductor?

Infantino on the stage for a third time but at least he's said it's the last time we will see him today.

We will see.

Hard to find any content that doesn't read like this.

Roberto Carlos in the house now, speaking on how it felt to win the World Cup in 2002.

What a player.

We could be moving closer as Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni comes out with the World Cup trophy won in 2022.

Short, sweet and full of self-praise from the US president.

Can we get to the draw please?

This feels more like a political rally than anything to do with football, and here comes the Donald.

Read into this what you will.

Trump's been given a medal too.

To shock around the globe, Donald Trump has won the FIFA Peace Prize.

Some very questionable statements followed in the video montage.

As expected.

Here comes Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger to sing the new World Cup song.

It's called "Desire" - the song of the summer?

Kevin Hart and Heidi Klum are the co-hosts for the show.

A comedian and a model walk into a bar...

He's welcoming the respective presidents and prime ministers of the three host nations with Trump, of course, getting the biggest shoutout.

Following up on that, Infantino has claimed this will be the "greatest sporting event in the history of mankind."

A very neutral observation.

Infantino is out for his first speech.

I say first as he made two in the space of 10 minutes at the draw for the playoffs.

A decent start to the night. Let's see where it goes from here.

You wouldn't be foolish to think this was a USA-only World Cup given the location of the draw, Trump's involvement and so on, but Canada and Mexico are also co-hosts.

Let's see how much of a say they get in tonight's proceedings.

If you didn't know by now, this is very much the US president's big day.

He is set to become the first recipient of the FIFA Peace Prize because, well, of course he is.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who made up the award, will likely be next to Trump for the entirety of the night.

The draw itself - the only thing most people care about - won't take place for at least an hour with this being a full event.

Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and Andrea Bocelli will all perform, as will the Village People after the draw.

They will play their iconic hit "YMCA", which conveniently was the theme song to Donald Trump's campaign rallies.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the 2026 World Cup draw, which is taking place in Washington D.C.