The draw for the 2026 World Cup, which will mark a before and after in the history of soccer as the first tournament with 48 teams and 12 groups, will be held this Friday, December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.. The event will define the composition of groups A to L, as well as the venues where each team will play in the first phase.
For Hispanic fans living in the United States, this draw represents a unique opportunity: for the first time the country is hosting a World Cup along with Mexico and Canada.
How the drums are organized
FIFA established four pools of 12 teams each, based on the FIFA Ranking of November 19, 2025.
Draw 1: includes the three hosts – Mexico, the United States and Canada – along with the nine top-ranked teams.
Rounds 2 and 3: organized according to the order of ranking and recent international performance.
Draw 4: integrates the remaining teams, including those that qualified for the 2026 World Cup through intercontinental and European playoffs.
This system seeks to prevent the soccer powers from facing each other in the initial phase, although there is always a surprise factor due to geographical restrictions.
Un antes y un después en la historia del fútbol PHOTO: Shutterstock
FIFA confirmed that each host country will head a group:
Mexico will be A1
Canada will be B1
United States will be D1
This guarantees that they will play all their group stage matches at home.
Mexico will officially open the World Cup on June 11, 2026 at the Azteca Stadium, a historic moment for both the country and the continent.
How the draw mechanism works
The draw follows a strict but agile process:
1. The balls are drawn from drum 1 and distributed into groups A-L.
2. The procedure is repeated with drums 2, 3 and 4.
3. Each selection must be placed in a group compatible with the geographical rules.
A computer system analyzes each election and determines if there are blockages by confederation.
If the assigned group is restricted, the selection is automatically moved to the next available group.
Geographical restrictions
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The confederation rules are crucial:
There can only be one team per confederation in each group, except for UEFA, which can have up to two European teams due to the large number of qualifiers.
This prevents, for example, two Africans from being in the same group, or two Asians from facing each other from the start.
These limitations make the 2026 World Cup draw a mix of strategy, statistics and luck.
The road to the final: new structure
Each group will have four teams, and will advance:
The top two teams from each group
The eight best third-place teams
This will form a 32-team playoff, bringing the total number of matches to 104, the highest number in World Cup history.
FIFA also confirmed that the four top-ranked teams (Spain, Argentina, France and England) will be placed on opposite sides of the table, meaning that they could only meet in the final.
And while the 2026 World Cup draw will define groups, venues and countries, FIFA will publish the full schedule of matches, dates and times on Saturday, December 6, in an additional ceremony.
Until then, the teams will know their opponents and where they will play, but not the order of the matches.
For more information, visit QuéOnnda.com.