2026 World Cup draw set for Washington on Friday

The draw for the expanded 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place on Friday, 5 December in Washington, DC, marking a major milestone ahead of the tournament, which will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. 

Although the city will not stage any matches, it has been selected as the venue for a high-profile ceremony that will determine the group-stage fate of 48 nations.

The event will begin at 17:00 GMT and is expected to last around 90 minutes, with entertainment forming a major part of the programme. 

Supermodel Heidi Klum, comedian Kevin Hart, and actor Danny Ramirez will co-host the ceremony, while musical performances are scheduled from Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams, and Nicole Scherzinger. 

FIFA president Gianni Infantino and US President Donald Trump are also expected to deliver speeches before the draw itself begins.

The 48 qualified teams have been placed into four pots of 12 based primarily on FIFA world rankings. 

The three host nations, the United States, Canada, and Mexico, are all seeded in Pot One regardless of ranking, while the six teams that will qualify through intercontinental and UEFA play-offs will be placed in Pot Four. 

The 12 groups will each contain one team from each pot.

For the first time, FIFA has introduced special seeding protection for the top four-ranked teams in the world, Spain, Argentina, France, and England, to increase the likelihood of marquee matchups later in the tournament. 

If these teams win their groups, they will be drawn into separate quadrants of the knockout bracket, preventing them from meeting before the semi-finals. However, this protection will be lost if any of them finish as runners-up in their groups.

Teams from the same confederation cannot be placed in the same group, with the exception of UEFA, which will have four groups containing two European sides due to the high number of European qualifiers. 

Additional complications arise from the play-off pathways, as certain combinations of teams could cause a “deadlock” if not carefully managed by FIFA’s draw computer.

While teams will learn their group opponents and match dates on Friday, most will not immediately discover their specific venues and kick-off times.

These details will be revealed a day later during a separate broadcast on Saturday, 6 December. 

Only the three host nations already know their match venues in advance, as they have been pre-assigned to ensure they play all group games on home soil.