When and How the 2026 FIFA World Cup Draw Will Take Place

The final draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place this Friday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The ceremony begins at 12:00 p.m. ET and marks the official start of the road toward the first 48-team World Cup in history.

The tournament — hosted jointly by the United States, Mexico, and Canada — will run from June 11 to July 19, 2026. With the expanded format comes a new structure: 12 groups of four teams each. FIFA has released the complete draw procedure, confirming that the 48 qualified nations will be allocated into four pots of 12 teams, based on the latest FIFA Ranking and the placement of the three host nations.

The draw will begin with Pot 1, featuring the seeded teams, and will continue sequentially through Pot 4. As usual, teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn together — with one exception: UEFA nations. Up to two European teams may share the same group due to the number of UEFA participants.

The three hosts — USA, Mexico, and Canada — are placed in Pot 1 as top seeds. Additional spots are filled by teams that qualified directly plus the winners of the upcoming intercontinental playoffs. The 12 groups will be labeled Group A through Group L.

In this new format, each team will play three group-stage matches. A total of 32 teams will advance to the knockout rounds: the top two from each group plus the eight best third-place teams. From there, the tournament continues with single-elimination matches beginning with the Round of 32.

Official Pots for the Draw:

Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, United States, 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, four UEFA playoff winners, and two intercontinental playoff winners.

The stage is set for a historic World Cup, and Friday’s draw will shape one of the most anticipated tournaments the sport has ever seen.