Explaining How World Cup 2026 Draw Actually Works

The first-ever 48-team FIFA World Cup draw takes place on Friday.

The United States, Mexico and Canada will host the event next summer. The competition expanded to 48 teams for this edition of the tournament.

The 48 participants have been separated into four pots of 12. One team from Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3 and Pot 4 will make up each of the 12 groups.

World Cup Draw 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, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, Six Playoff winners

The United States, Mexico and Canada were placed in Pot 1 as the host countries. The other nine Pot 1 teams were determined by FIFA world ranking.

For the 2026 World Cup, FIFA will keep the top two ranked teams, Spain and Argentina, as well as the third-and-fourth-ranked teams (France and England) away from each other until the semifinals provided that each team wins their group. Those two pairs of teams will placed into different pathways during the draw.

Pot 4 looks different because the final six teams to qualify for the World Cup have yet to be determined. Four teams from Europe and and two teams from an intercontinental playoff will fill those positions.

Each playoff matchup has been assigned a position in the draw, so the country that wins that specific playoff will go into that spot. For example, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy and Northern Ireland are in the UEFA Path A playoff group. The winner of that playoff would go into whichever group UEFA Path A winner is drawn into.

There are some constraints to the draw. No more than two European teams can be drawn into the same group. Teams from Africa, Asia and the Americas can't have another team from their confederation in their group.

Mexico will be in Group A, Canada is in Group B and the United States is in Group D. None of the hosts will be drawn with the Concacaf qualifiers Haiti, Curacao and Panama.

Whichever team from Pot 3 is drawn into Group A faces Mexico in the World Cup opener.

The United States' first match in Group D will come against any one of Norway, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. That's the same pool of teams Mexico could play in the tournament opener.

The 2026 World Cup kicks off on June 11 in Mexico City. The final is July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.