2026 FIFA World Cup Draw Procedure Revealed
Balls will be picked up from pots soon
FIFA announced the procedures and pots for the 2026 World Cup draw.
The Final Draw procedures stipulate that the hosts Canada, Mexico and the United States will be allocated to pot 1, and the 39 remaining qualified teams will be allocated to the four pots of 12 teams each according to the FIFA Men’s Ranking issued on Wednesday, November 19, 2025. Lastly, the two FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off Tournament placeholders, as well as the four European play-off placeholders, will be allocated to pot 4.
For pot 1, Canada, Mexico and the United States, as the host countries, will be identified by different coloured balls and, when drawn, will be assigned to position A1 for Mexico (green ball), B1 for Canada (red ball) and D1 for the USA (blue ball), as already established per the match schedule previously released. The remaining nine top-ranked teams in pot 1 will be identified by nine balls of the same colour and automatically allocated to position 1 of the group into which they are drawn.
To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established when developing the match schedule. In order to have a balanced distribution of the teams, the four highest-ranked teams in the FIFA Rankings, when drawn, will have the following constraints: the highest-ranked team (Spain) and the second highest-ranked team (Argentina) will be randomly drawn into opposite pathways, and the same principle will apply to the third (France) and fourth (England) highest-ranked teams. This will ensure that, should they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams will not meet before the final.
For pots 2, 3 and 4, each team’s group position will be determined according to a predefined allocation pattern. This pattern is detailed in the table included in the draw procedures document. A team’s position within the group will then be determined by the pot from which they are drawn and by the group into which they are drawn.
In principle, no group will have more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it. This applies to all confederations except UEFA, which is represented by 16 teams. Each group must have at least one, but no more than two UEFA teams drawn into it.
For the two FIFA Play-Off Tournament placeholders, in order to comply with FIFA’s general principle to ensure that no group has more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it, the confederation constraint will be applied to all three teams within each pathway of the two FIFA Play-Off Tournament placeholders in pot 4.
Thank you, Sam. I’m attending the WC 2026 draw event at Gillette Stadium Friday and your excellent report will help me prepare.
The way they are handling pot 4 increases the probability the US has 2 European teams in their group. Of the 12 balls in pot 4, there are 4 that cannot go in the US group. Of the 8 balls that can be placed in the US group, 4 of them will be European teams. If I understand correctly that gives us a 50% chance of 2 European teams in the US group.