The largest FIFA World Cup in history kicks off in about six months, and fans will soon learn which countries will face off each other first in the global tournament.
At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Friday, the 48 qualifying teams will be randomly selected into 12 groups, lettered A through L in alphabetical order.
To determine which countries go where, the teams are split up between four pots, with 12 in each. Since Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are hosting the World Cup this year, they have been automatically assigned to the first pot. The remaining teams are then divvied up depending on their world ranking as of Nov. 19.
The remaining six teams will be announced after their playoffs during the March 23 to March 31 match window and will be relegated to pot 4.
These are the pot divisions:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | Croatia | Norway | Jordan |
| Mexico | Morocco | Panama | Cabo Verde |
| United States | Colombia | Egypt | Ghana |
| Spain | Uruguay | Algeria | Curacao |
| Argentina | Switzerland | Scotland | Haiti |
| France | Japan | Paraguay | New Zealand |
| England | Senegal | Tunisia | European playoff A winner |
| Brazil | Iran | Cote d’Ivoire | European playoff B winner |
| Portugal | South Korea | Uzbekistan | European playoff C winner |
| Netherlands | Ecuador | Qatar | European playoff D winner |
| Belgium | Austria | Saudi Arabia | FIFA playoff 1 winner |
| Germany | Australia | South Africa | FIFA playoff 2 winner |
Starting from pot 1, the draw will place the teams into groups A through L.
How does the draw work?
There will be a dozen bolls for each berth, containing the country’s name of each team that qualified in that seed.
While Mexico, Canada and the U.S. will be drawn first, they are already divided into their groupings, with Mexico in Group A as team A1, Canada in Group B as team B1 and the U.S. in Group D as team D1.
After this pot has been completely divided into their respective groups, the draw will move into the selection process from pot 2, emptying out that group before moving onto the next pot until all countries have been pulled.
Are there any draw constraints?
The top four teams are going to be randomly drawn into opposite pathways to ensure that, if they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams will not face off in the field before the final.
That means Spain, the highest-ranked, and Argentina, the second highest, will be split off into different streams. France and England will also follow suit.
FIFA says it tries to have no more than one team from the same confederation drawn into a grouping, which is applicable to all football federations except to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
There can be no more than two UEFA teams drawn into a grouping, which means four of the 12 groups will have two European countries competing.
What countries are participating in the playoff tournament?
Twenty-two teams across the two playoff competitions are competing for a slot in the 2026 World Cup. One playoff series hosts 16 European countries while the other features two teams from Concacaf, and one team apiece from AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL and OFC.
The European playoffs are comprised of the four best-ranked UEFA Nations League section winners and 12 group runners-up. The participating teams are then split off into four paths, with each playoff series comprised of two semi-final pairings of one seeded team and one unseeded team.
Then, the winners will make up the final four UEFA representatives in pot four of the World Cup. The countries vying for a spot are: Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Albania, Turkiye, Romania, Slovakia, Kosovo, Denmark, North Macedonia, Czechia and the Republic of Ireland.
As for the FIFA World Cup 2026 playoffs, the four lowest ranked countries in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will square off in the semi-finals while the two highest ranking nations will go directly into the finals. Congo and Iraq are the two countries in the finals, while New Caledonia, Jamaica, Bolivia and Suriname will compete for a spot in the playoff finals.
Whoever wins in the two bracket finals will round out the rest of the qualifying teams for next year’s World Cup.
Can I still sign up tickets?
After the group matchups are announced Friday, fans can try to enter the Random Selection Draw which opens on Dec. 11 and closes on Jan. 13.
This will be the first ticket draw where football followers can sign up for single-match tickets, knowing what countries will be playing in the early group-stage games.
Nearly two million tickets have been sold in the previous draws, FIFA says.
The tournament opens in Mexico on June 11 with the final match to be held in East Rutherford, N.J. on July 12.
