The draw for the 2026 World Cup will take place in Washington, D.C. on Friday, 5 December, with Fifa promising a whizzy computer system to stop the whole thing descending into chaos, although there’s a fair bit of moving pieces that could still trip them up. A total of 48 teams will discover their fate, with the expanded format already causing plenty of head-scratching behind the scenes.
The ceremony kicks off at 17:00 GMT, with organisers flogging it as a glittering 90 minute spectacle. There’s a load of showbiz fluff bolted onto it, with Heidi Klum, Kevin Hart and Danny Ramirez wheeled out to host, plus a few musical turns from Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger, because apparently we can’t just draw countries out of a bowl without a mini Eurovision first. Fifa president Gianni Infantino will speak, as will US President Donald Trump, which you imagine will go down like a lead balloon with some people tuning in.
The actual draw will be handled by Rio Ferdinand, who’s become something of a front man for global football events. He’s joined by Samantha Johnson, along with a bizarre but entertaining mix of sporting royalty, including Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Aaron Judge and Shaquille O’Neal, who probably know less about the rankings than your uncle after a pint, but it’ll look good on telly. Once the groups are set, the Village People are expected to belt out YMCA, because apparently football wasn’t surreal enough already.
On the footballing side, the seeding system is fairly straightforward, even if the maths behind it isn’t. The 48 nations are split across four pots of 12, based mostly on the Fifa world rankings, although the three hosts USA, Mexico and Canada automatically land in Pot 1 whether they deserve it or not. The nations that squeeze through the complicated six play off paths will all be dumped into Pot 4, meaning there’s real potential for one or two heavyweights to end up staring at an early exit.
There’s some big hitters lurking in those play-offs too. Italy and Denmark would both be sat pretty in Pot 2 if they’d qualified the normal way, while Wales would’ve been in Pot 3, which means somebody’s group could instantly look like a death trap. The UEFA play off routes include Italy, Wales, Bosnia and Northern Ireland in Path A, while Path B features the likes of Ukraine, Poland, Albania and Sweden. Path C throws together Turkey, Slovakia, Kosovo and Romania, with Path D housing Denmark, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland and North Macedonia. Beyond Europe, the FIFA play offs include DR Congo, Jamaica and New Caledonia, plus Iraq, Bolivia and Suriname in a second bracket.
With the competition expanding for the first time, the draw has become even more crucial, not just for the big dogs chasing another star on their badge, but for a host of mid ranked sides dreaming about sneaking through the early rounds. The full match schedule will start falling into place once the balls are drawn, with teams quickly turning attention to travel, climate and scouting. For now, though, everyone waits to see who lands the so called group of death because with this format, there’s a fair chance there might be several.
