WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital hosted the draw for the 2026 World Cup on Friday, Dec. 5, determining the groups, matchups and venues for next summer’s tournament in North America.
The United States men’s national team had already been placed in Group D as a host and learned its three opponents in the draw, a star-studded affair taking place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump attended and was handed the inaugural ‘FIFA peace prize,’ an award that was announced weeks after the president was not named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
‘This will be the greatest World Cup ever, the greatest event mankind will ever see,’ FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on stage.
This edition of the draw featured some new wrinkles as the field expands from 32 to 48 for the first time, with 12 groups of four and separate pathways for the world’s four highest-ranked teams.
Here’s how the 2026 World Cup draw unfolded:
World Cup groups
Group A
Mexico
South Africa
South Korea
UEFA playoff D (Czechia/Ireland/Denmark/North Macedonia)
Group B
Canada
UEFA playoff A (Wales/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Italy/Northern Ireland)
Qatar
Switzerland
Group C
Brazil
Morocco
Haiti
Scotland
Group D
United States
Paraguay
Australia
UEFA playoff C (Türkiye/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo)
Group E
Germany
Curaçao
Ivory Coast
Ecuador
Group F
Netherlands
Japan
UEFA playoff B (Ukraine/Sweden/Poland/Albania)
Tunisia
Group G
Belgium
Egypt
Iran
New Zealand
Group H
Spain
Cape Verde
Saudi Arabia
Uruguay
Group I
France
Senegal
FIFA playoff 2 (Iraq/Bolivia/Suriname)
Norway
Group J
Argentina
Algeria
Austria
Jordan
Group K
Portugal
FIFA playoff 1 (New Caledonia/Jamaica/Congo)
Uzbekistan
Colombia
Group L
England
Croatia
Ghana
Panama
USMNT gets best-case World Cup draw
The United States men’s national team got a very favorable draw for next summer’s World Cup.
The Americans will play Paraguay, Australia and the winner of a European playoff in the tournament they are co-hosting with Canada and Mexico. They have winning records against both Paraguay and Australia, including 2-1 victories over both teams this fall.
World Cup group of death? England get nightmare draw
WASHINGTON — Critics of the expanded 48-team FIFA World Cup will say the tournament has become watered down but several groups are loaded with heavy-hitters who may have a tougher time than expected to advance to the knockout stage.
What time is World Cup draw today?
The 2026 FIFA World Cup draw ceremony starts at noon ET on Friday, Dec. 5.
How to watch World Cup draw: TV channel, live stream
TV channel: Fox
Streaming: Live on FIFA.com and Fubo
2026 World Cup qualified teams
Entering the draw, 42 of the 48 spots in the field have been clinched. The final six spots will be decided in March’s qualification playoffs.
Here are the teams qualified entering the draw:
Host nations: Canada, Mexico, United States
Asia: Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan
Africa: Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia
Concacaf: Curaçao, Haiti, Panama
Europe: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland
Oceania: New Zealand
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay
World Cup draw security ramped up
WASHINGTON — With President Trump and other heads of state and dignitaries scheduled to attend the World Cup draw, security is tight around the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital.
Neighboring streets have been shut down all morning and media members are waiting in an hour-long line in the snow to get into the security perimeter.
How does World Cup draw work? Format, pots explained
Entering the draw, the 48 teams – 42 already clinched – are placed into four pots of 12 based on the November FIFA world rankings. The final six countries are in the fourth pot by default, no matter who ends up qualifying.
As the co-hosts, the USA, Canada and Mexico were placed into the first pot by default with the tournament’s nine highest-ranked teams.
Other than Europe (16 places), no continental federation may have more than one team in each group.
World Cup draw 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, UEFA playoff A, B, C and D, FIFA playoff tournament 1 and 2
Donald Trump wins inaugural FIFA peace prize
WASHINGTON — It wasn’t the one he had in mind but Donald Trump did finally take home a peace prize.
Trump was the winner of the inaugural ‘FIFA Peace Prize,’ which the soccer organization awarded during its World Cup draw in Washington.
The award winner was hardly a surprise. Trump has been the assumed victor since FIFA announced the creation of the prize a month ago that it said would ‘reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace.’
Donald Trump accepts ‘great honor’ of FIFA Peace Prize
WASHINGTON — Before the drawing of teams began, Trump was awarded the inaugural ‘FIFA peace prize,’ a new annual honor that was announced after Trump didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize. After an extended video honoring Trump, Infantino presented him with a medal and the trophy, gushing over the American president before handing him the mic.
‘This is truly one of the great honors of my life,’ Trump said after receiving the award.
YMCA and a ‘peace prize.’ FIFA shoots for a Goooal! in Trump courtship
It’s showtime for world soccer’s courtship of President Donald Trump, complete with a performance by one of his favorite bands and a glitzy, celebrity-laden ceremony loaded with anticipation and a prize targeted to appeal to a president who styles himself as a peacemaker.
The FIFA World Cup is coming to North America next year, and FIFA has been laying the groundwork for the massive sporting event by cozying up to Trump. — Zac Anderson
See the Donald Trump soccer ball
Among the sights at the 2026 World Cup draw at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. was a soccer ball with a painted face of United States of America President Donald Trump.
2026 World Cup odds to win
Here are the latest odds for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, from BetMGM.com:
Spain +400
England +600
France +650
Brazil +750
Argentina +800
Portugal +1100
Germany +1200
Netherlands +1600
Norway +2500
Italy/Colombia +3300
Note: Host nations Canada, Mexico and the United States are all +6600
2026 World Cup schedule
Group stage: June 11-June 27
Round of 32: June 28-July 3
Round of 16: July 4-July 7
Quarterfinals: July 9-July 11
Semifinals: July 14-15 – AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas) and Mecedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta)
Third-place match: July 18 – Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens
World Cup final: July 19 – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
What does FIFA stand for?
FIFA is the governing body for international soccer (football), most notably orchestrating events such as the men’s and women’s World Cups. FIFA is an acronym for Federation Internationale de Football Association. FIFA was founded in 1904 and has 211 members.
World Cup draw gets assist from Tom Brady and other sports mega-stars
The FIFA World Cup 2026 draw, which will take place at the iconic John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 5, will feature a star-studded lineup of athletes assisting former England captain Rio Ferdinand.
The event, which will be broadcast on Fox, features Ferdinand and Samantha Johnson as hosts.
They will have notable assistants for the draw, including seven-time NFL Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, four-time NBA championship winner and Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, NHL Hall of Famer and four-time Stanley Cup champion Wayne Gretzky, and seven-time MLB All-Star Aaron Judge. Additionally, two-time NFL Super Bowl champion Eli Manning will serve as the red carpet host, making a special appearance to enhance the unique experience for fans watching.
2026 World Cup weather will be a concern
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he might keep his substitutes in the dressing room during matches at the 2026 World Cup next summer in an attempt to mitigate the impact of extreme heat.
‘If this helps the players later in the match, we have to consider it,’ Tuchel told BBC Sport on Thursday.
‘Nobody likes it because I want the players to be out there, feeling the energy and bringing it from the bench on to the pitch. But I saw players doing this at the Club World Cup. Hopefully we can avoid it,’ the manager added.
Tuchel admitted that this would be problematic for high-level football, saying it would reduce the intensity of matches in the global event co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. — Reuters
Has MLS become a ‘league of choice’?
MLS commissioner Don Garber said the arrival of elite players such as Lionel Messi have helped the sport cement its place in a crowded U.S. market, as anticipation builds across the country for Friday’s World Cup draw in Washington.
Garber said real progress had been made in recent years, fueled in part by the arrival of Lionel Messi in 2023.
‘On the field, our league is more global than ever before,’ Garber said at a news conference on Thursday.
‘Our roster features players from 80 different countries. More than any other league in any sport around the world. And global superstars, as we all know, are making MLS their league of choice,’ — Reuters
New World Cup was necessary, FIFA says
FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger backed the move to 48 teams, saying demand to participate was growing and that the quality gap between nations had narrowed.
‘The evolution is always more teams want to participate. And now I believe that 48 teams is the right number,’ he said, noting it still represented less than a quarter of FIFA’s 211 member associations.
‘I was a bit scared before because maybe the difference between the teams will be too big. In fact, we realized that the difference quality-wise has been reduced.’ – Reuters