The 2026 FIFA World Cup pots have been determined for December 5’s draw in Washington, D.C.
Host nations; The United States, Mexico, and Canada will be in Pot 1 along with nine additional countries. Those include Spain, Argentina, France and England.
All teams from Pot 1 will be drawn between Groups A-L before Pots 2, 3, and 4 will be continuously drawn to those respective groups.
FIFA has established two separate pathways to the semifinal round. In order to have a balanced distribution of the teams, the four highest-ranked teams in the FIFA Men’s Ranking, 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. 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, except for UEFA nations due to having 16 representatives. Each group must have at least one, but no more than two UEFA teams drawn into it.
The confederation constraint will also be applied to all the winning teams that qualify through the Inter-Confederation Playoffs.
An updated match schedule, including the stadium assigned to each match and the respective kick-off time, will be confirmed on December 6.
Here is a full rundown of the four pots:
Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany.
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia.
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.
Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Play-Off Winners A, B, C and D, FIFA Play-Off Tournament Winners 1 and 2.
Definitely could get hit with a difficult group.
I hope we get Norway in our group. Haaland and Odegaard would be a fun challenge.
Norway is the team from Pot 3 we emphatically do NOT want in our Group. That’s a near-instant Group of Death because Pot 2 is no joke either.
And let’s add Ghana from group 4 just for shits and giggles..