The 2026 World Cup draw is taking place on Friday, December 5th at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington , D.C. at 12 p.m. ET. Without a doubt, this is going to be one of the most important moments in the buildup to the much-anticipated summer tournament that taking place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which kicks off on June 11, 2026, at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, before coming to a close on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New York City. For the United States, it is the first time they’ve hosted a World Cup since 1994 (although the U.S. did host the Club World Cup last summer). The draw will be when not only the United States men’s national team, but Mexico and Canada as well, will find out their fates.
Friday’s draw is the first for a 48-team World Cup, after the tournament was expanded from a 32 team version, and will define the path to the final for all the teams involved. Notably, while 42 nations have already clinched a spot next summer, six more are still competing in the UEFA playoffs and intercontinental playoffs, but whichever countries prevail will know their path. Those playoffs are taking place in March 2026. Let’s now take a look at all you need to know ahead of Friday’s draw:
When is the draw taking place?
The 2026 FIFA World Cup draw will finally reveal the group-stage paths for the 42 teams already secured, including the three co-hosts (Canada, Mexico, and the United States), and the six contenders for the final spots in the inter-confederation and European playoffs set for late March 2026.
How to watch FIFA World Cup 2026 draw
Date: Friday, Dec. 5 | Time: 12 p.m. ET
Location: John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — Washington, D.C.
TV: Fox | Live stream: Fubo (try for free)
How does the draw work?
Canada, Mexico and the United States, as the host countries, will be assigned to positions A1 for Mexico (green ball), B1 for Canada (red ball) and D1 for the USA (blue ball), as already established per the match schedule released in 2024. The remaining nine top-ranked teams in pot 1 will be identified by nine balls of the same color and automatically allocated to position one of the group into which they are drawn.
To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semifinals have been established when developing the match schedule. In order to have a balanced distribution of the teams, the four highest-ranked teams in the FIFA Men’s Rankings, when drawn, will have the following constraints: the highest-ranked team (Spain) and the second highest-ranked team (Argentina) will be randomly drawn into opposite pathways, and the same principle will apply to the third (France) and fourth (England) highest-ranked teams. This will ensure that, should they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams will not meet before the final.
No group will have more than one team from the same federation in it, except UEFA, which is required to have two groups of two UEFA teams in it, due to the fact that 16 teams will be participating in the tournament. Then there’s the challenge of the inter-confederation playoffs, which will not be held until after the draw. For the playoff tournament teams, the confederation restrictions will be applied to all teams involved in the playoff, which would keep the host nations from drawing a team involved in the FIFA playoff tournament due to Jamaica and Suriname being involved as Concacaf teams.
Will Donald Trump be at the FIFA World Cup draw?
FIFA has confirmed a number of famous athletes will be part of the festivities including Eli Manning, Aaron Judge, Tom Brady and Shaquille O’Neal. In addition, the leaders of all three host nations, Donald Trump, Mark Carney and Claudia Sheinbaum will participate. And, of course, FIFA head Gianni Infantino will be there running the show. The hosts will be Kevin Hart, Heidi Klum and Danny Ramirez with live musical performances from Andrea Bocelli, Village People, Robbie Williams, and Nicole Scherzinger.
Teams qualified
Spots clinched: 42/48
World Cup hosts
Since the 2026 World Cup is co-hosted by three nations, they all receive an automatic qualifying spot in the tournament.
- United States
- Mexico
- Canada
AFC Qualifiers
- Iran
- Uzbekistan
- South Korea
- Jordan
- Australia
- Japan
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
Concacaf Qualifiers
OFC Qualifier
CONMEBOL Qualifiers
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Ecuador
- Colombia
- Paraguay
- Uruguay
CAF Qualifiers
- Morocco
- Egypt
- Tunisia
- Ghana
- Cabo Verde
- Algeria
- South Africa
- Senegal
- Ivory Coast
UEFA qualifiers
- England
- France
- Croatia
- Portugal
- Norway
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Switzerland
- Scotland
- Spain
- Austria
- Belgium
World Cup pots
The four pots also include the six teams that are to be determined, and all of them will end up in the fourth pot of the draw, with teams like Italy, Poland and Sweden potentially landing in the last pot. The official pots are as follows:
- Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
- Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, Korea Republic, Ecuador, Austria, Australia
- Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
- Pot 4: Jordan, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Playoff A, B, C and D, FIFA PlayOff Tournament 1 and 2
World Cup playoffs
All playoffs will take place during the March international break in 2026. The UEFA playoffs are scheduled from Thursday, March 26, with the finals on March 31. The inter-confederation playoffs will take place in Mexico, being split between the Estadio Akron in Guadalajara and the Estadio BBVA in Monterrey, taking place between March 23-31. By the end of March, all 48 teams will be determined and placed in groups.
Inter-confederation playoffs draw
PATH 1
Semifinal: New Caledonia vs. Jamaica
Final: Congo DR vs. New Caledonia/Jamaica
PATH 2
Semifinal: Bolivia vs. Suriname
Final: Iraq vs. Bolivia/Suriname
European playoffs draw
PATH A
Semifinal: Italy vs. Northern Ireland
Semifinal: Wales vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina
Final: Wales/Bosnia vs. Italy/Northern Ireland
PATH B
Semifinal: Ukraine vs. Sweden
Semifinal: Poland vs. Albania
Final: Ukraine/Sweden vs. Poland/Albania
PATH C
Semifinal: Turkiye vs. Romania
Semifinal: Slovakia vs. Kosovo
Final: Slovakia/Kosovo vs. Turkiye/Romania
PATH D
Semifinal: Denmark vs. North Macedonia
Semifinal: Czechia vs. Republic of Ireland
Final: Czechia/Republic of Ireland vs. Denmark/North Macedonia
World Cup schedule
FIFA have also announced that they will unveil the updated match schedule for the World Cup in a live global broadcast on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET from Washington, D.C., as the match allocation process that follows the draw aims to ensure the best possible conditions for all teams and spectators while, where possible, enabling fans all over the world to watch their teams play live across different time zones. The final version of the match schedule will be available in March, once the playoffs have taken place and the final six slots have been filled.
