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The path to the 2026 World Cup was marked this Friday by the group stage draw, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., which allocated the 48 teams of the tournament into 12 groups for the first round of the World Cup to be played in the United States, Canada, and Mexico between June and July 2026.
The main news of the event is its expanded format to 48 teams, a change that lengthens the competition and adds an extra round of knockout matches: the Round of 32, before the Round of 16.
Out of the 48 participants, 42 are already qualified, while the remaining six spots will be determined in March 2026 through an international playoff and a UEFA playoff.
In terms of organization, the calendar already has key dates: the inaugural match will be played on June 11 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, while the final is scheduled for Sunday, July 19 in New York, and the third-place match will take place on July 18 in Miami.
Mexico, which is seeded as the host nation and appears in the text with its position 15 in the FIFA ranking, has been placed in Group A, where it will debut against South Africa and will share the group with South Korea and an opponent to be determined from UEFA Playoff D (Denmark, North Macedonia, Ireland, or Czech Republic).
This group will play from June 11 to June 24 and will be divided between Azteca (CDMX), Akron (Guadalajara), BBVA (Monterrey), and Mercedes-Benz (Atlanta).
Canada, the other North American host leads Group B along with Qatar and Switzerland, in addition to a team yet to be determined from the UEFA A playoff (Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, or Bosnia and Herzegovina).
This area will be contested from June 12 to June 24 at venues such as BMO Field (Toronto), BC Place (Vancouver), Levi’s Stadium (San Francisco), SoFi Stadium (Los Angeles), and Lumen Field (Seattle).
In the rest of the draw, the lottery left groupings with striking matchups from the initial stage.
Group C includes Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, and Scotland; Group D features the United States, Paraguay, Australia, and a qualifier from the UEFA playoff C (Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo).
In Group E are Germany, Curacao, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador. Group F includes the Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, and a yet-to-be-determined team from the UEFA B playoffs (Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, or Albania).
Later in the group, Group G included Belgium, Egypt, Iran, and New Zealand; Group H with Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, and Uruguay; Group I with France, Senegal, Norway, and a qualifier from the international playoff 2 (Bolivia, Suriname, or Iraq).
Group J was formed by Argentina, Algeria, Austria, and Jordan. In Group K, Portugal, Uzbekistan, and Colombia were paired, along with a team from international playoff 1 (Jamaica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, or New Caledonia). Finally, Group L brought together England, Croatia, Ghana, and Panama.
The organization of the World Cup will also be characterized by a “regionalized” dynamic to reduce long travels and transfers, due to the size of the tournament and the three host countries.
According to the published information, several cities and stadiums for some groups will remain to be confirmed, with an update to the schedule planned for Saturday, December 6th.
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