The draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was held at 12:00 UTC−5 (EST) on December 5, 2025, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., United States. It set the stage for the round-robin group stage in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, where the World Cup will be played. The teams were divided into four pots of twelve, with one team selected from each pot to form a group.
As hosts, Mexico, Canada, and the United States were seeded. They took positions A1, B1, and D1, respectively, from Pot 1, where they were joined by the top nine qualified teams in the FIFA rankings. The countries occupying positions 13 to 24 on the ranking of the qualified teams were allocated to Pot 2, while the 25th to 36th best-ranked qualifiers were placed in Pot 3. Finally, Pot 4 included the qualified teams in positions 37 to 42, plus six placeholders — two for the winners of the inter-confederation playoffs, and four for the winners of the European playoffs.[1] These playoffs are scheduled to be played in March 2026, with the final six teams to qualify on March 31, 2026.[2]
The draw was attended by the coaches and representatives from 64 teams — the 42 qualified teams and the 22 teams participating in either the inter-confederation or the European playoffs.[5] Also in attendance were Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, and American president Donald Trump.[6] Trump was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize during the ceremony.[7]
Iran had initially announced it would boycott the ceremony after Mehdi Taj, the president of the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI), was denied a visa to enter the United States.[8] However, the FFIRI later stated that they had reversed their decision and would be sending representatives.[9]
The 42 known teams were seeded based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 19, 2025 (shown in parentheses).[10] The six unknown placeholders representing the playoff winners were automatically placed in Pot 4.[11]
Two teams from the same confederation could not be placed in the same group, with the exception of UEFA for which there had to be at least one but no more than two teams in each group. The confederation restriction applied to all three potential winners of the inter-confederation playoffs. FIFA also announced that, "in the interest of ensuring competitive balance", two separate pathways to the semifinals (sides of the knockout bracket) were established. Based on this, the teams ranked first (Spain) and second (Argentina) in the ranking were randomly drawn into groups in opposite pathways, as were the teams ranked third (France) and fourth (England). Therefore, should these pairs of teams win their groups, they will be unable to meet until the final, while all four will be unable to meet until the semifinals.
Despite the procedure stating that the three co-hosts would be identified by different colored balls and placed in pre-defined positions as per the match schedule, the draw for the co-hosts was instead performed by their respective heads of government, who drew their own nations out. The draw then started with the remaining nine teams in Pot 1 who were identified by nine balls of the same color and allocated to position 1 of the group into which they were drawn. For pots 2, 3 and 4, each team's group position was determined according to a predefined allocation pattern, which was published by FIFA as a part of the draw procedures as follows:[12][13]
The twelve groups were formed randomly, selecting one team from each of the four pots. The three hosts' positions in the draw was predetermined – Mexico in A1, Canada in B1, and the United States in D1. Unlike previous editions, the position of unseeded teams in each group was also predetermined as opposed to being randomly drawn.
