2026 FIFA World Cup pots: December 5 draw structure announced for groups in next summer’s tournament

The stage is set for the FIFA World Cup draw, which will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. as FIFA has released the final pots for the 48 teams taking part in the World Cup. These pots are based on the FIFA men’s world rankings, with the three host countries, the United States, Canada, and Mexico, being joined in pot one by the nine next highest ranked teams in those rankings. They’re then followed by the next 12 highest-ranked teams making up pot two, pot three, and so on until pot four includes the playoff winners from both the UEFA playoff path and the inter-confederation playoffs. 

The official pots are as follows:

• Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium,
• Germany
• Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, IR Iran, Korea Republic,
• Ecuador, Austria, Australia
• Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar,
• Saudi Arabia, South Africa
• Pot 4: Jordan, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Play-Off A, B, C and D, FIFA, Play-Off Tournament 1 and 2

Looking at the pots, there is the potential for some loaded groups, such as the United States getting Morocco, Norway, and Ghana in the same group or Brazil, Japan, Egypt, and Italy (if they make it out of the European playoff) making up a group. Despite the expansion to 48 teams for the 2026 World Cup, there will be some balanced and difficult groups.

Draw restrictions

No group will have more than one team from the same federation in it, except UEFA which is required to have two groups of two UEFA teams in it due to the fact that 16 teams will be participating in the tournament. For the playoff tournament teams, the confederation restrictions will be applied to all teams involved in the playoff, which would keep the host nations from drawing a team involved in the FIFA playoff tournament due to Jamaica and Suriname being involved as Concacaf teams.