FIFA World Cup 2026 Draw: Date, Pots, Teams & Schedule, How To Watch

The World Cup’s biggest edition ever is edging closer, and Friday’s draw in Washington will finally map out who plays whom when the tournament kicks off next summer across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

With 48 teams and 104 matches, this will be the largest World Cup in history — and the draw is the moment the tournament truly starts to take shape.

When is the draw?

The ceremony begins at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) on Friday, Dec. 5, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino are both slated to attend.

The draw will create 12 groups of four teams each for the group stage, with Mexico already locked into Group A, Canada in Group B and the United States in Group D.

How to watch 2026 World Cup Draw

Coverage runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET on FOX One, FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports App. Telemundo and Peacock will also air the event.
FIFA will stream the ceremony worldwide on its website and YouTube channel.

FIFA plans to release the full match schedule — including venues and kickoff times — around noon ET on Saturday, Dec. 6.

How the draw works

All 48 teams are placed into four pots based on the November FIFA world rankings. The draw proceeds from the highest-ranked pot downward until all 12 groups are complete.

A few rules steer the process:
• No group can have more than one team from any single confederation, except UEFA, which can have up to two teams per group.
• Every group must include at least one European team.
• A new knockout-stage format keeps the four top-seeded nations — Spain, Argentina, France and England — from meeting before the semifinals, assuming they win their groups.

Understanding the pots

Pot 1: Host nations plus the top-ranked teams
United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany

Pot 2: The next tier of highly ranked teams
Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia

Pot 3: Middle-ranked qualifiers
Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa

Pot 4: Lower-ranked qualifiers and playoff placeholders
Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, four UEFA playoff slots and two intercontinental playoff slots

The pot system spreads top teams across the groups and avoids lopsided early matchups.

When is the 2026 World Cup?

The tournament runs June 11 to July 19, 2026.

• Opening match: June 11 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City
• Final: July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey

It’s the first World Cup hosted by three nations, the first with 48 teams and the first featuring 104 total matches across 16 venues.

What is the UEFA playoff?

Sixteen European nations will battle for the final four UEFA slots.
Twelve are runners-up from qualifying groups; four more (Romania, Sweden, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia) earned places through Nations League performance.

This playoff is single elimination: semifinals on March 26, 2026, with four finals on March 31 to decide the last European qualifiers.

What is the intercontinental playoff?

Six nations compete for the final two non-European World Cup spots.

Two three-team brackets are formed:
• In one, Jamaica faces New Caledonia, with the winner meeting DR Congo.
• In the other, Bolivia plays Suriname for the right to face Iraq.

All matches are single elimination and will be played in Mexico — at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara and Estadio BBVA in Monterrey — between March 23 and March 31.