World Cup
2026 World
Cup Draw
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Follow the latest from Washington D.C. as we build up to tomorrow's 2026 World Cup draw.
We will be previewing the draw — as well as next summer's tournament itself — over the course of the day and will be hearing from some of our reporters on the ground and around the world.
We want to hear from you guys, share your thoughts on the World Cup by emailing us at live@theathletic.com and we'll feature some of your messages in our coverage.
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World Cup draw 2026: A guide to all the teams
FIFA world ranking: 14
The co-hosts have been patchy under Mauricio Pochettino: hiring a blue-chip manager to guide them in their home tournament wasn’t going to plan, but results have improved. Steering a team towards a World Cup with limited competitive action is always a tricky task, and their prospects at home are uncertain.
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USMNT’s reality has shifted, and Pochettino now has dreams of ‘impossible’ World Cup run
FIFA world ranking: 36
Their astonishing victory over Denmark to seal their first qualification since 1998 is still so fresh in the memory that it would be easy to think Scotland could win the whole thing. They won’t, but they have as good a chance as any of making it through their group, assuming Scott McTominay and John McGinn take their domestic excellence to the international game.
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You thought Scotland would flunk their big World Cup chance? You haven’t met this Scotland team
FIFA world ranking: 66
Jordan continue to surprise and delight by punching above their weight. After shocking the 2023 Asian Cup by reaching the final when most thought they would struggle to get past the first round, they qualified for the World Cup for the first time, confirming their place with a 3-0 win over Oman in June.
Some concern might come from some rough results in post-qualification friendlies, and they will have to get past the “just happy to be there” attitude if they are to make an impact.
In our Destination World Cup 2026 series, we will be telling the stories of players, teams and countries as they prepare for next summer’s tournament. To kick us off, Nick Miller travelled to Cape Verde to witness a remarkable underdog story.
Dailon Livramento was slumped on the floor. Pico Lopes was looking for his dad in the crowd. Stopira was hugging everyone. Steven Moreira didn’t know what to do with himself.
“For the moment, I don’t think I know how I feel,” Moreira, the Columbus Crew defender, told The Athletic, with a massive grin on his face that suggested he’d figure it out soon enough.
FIFA world ranking: 68
The joy at qualifying for their first World Cup hasn’t come close to subsiding, but when it does, perhaps some reality will set in.
Few of their players operate at the highest domestic level, and most of their squad will be spread around a collection of the world’s, shall we say, less fashionable leagues.
Even being there is an astonishing achievement, so making it out of their group will be a miracle.
FIFA world ranking: 84
There will be plenty of beneficiaries from the expanded tournament, but arguably just as fortunate are the CONCACAF nations traditionally shunted out by the three hosts.
Haiti, whose only previous appearance was in 1974, were one of those countries, but they performed superbly to finish above recent qualifiers Honduras and Costa Rica.
They surely won’t get further than the first round, but even this is an extraordinary achievement.
We don’t actually know the confirmed 48 teams for the 2026 World Cup finals yet, of course.
We have 42 of them but there are still 22 teams fighting for six remaining spots — 16 European teams looking to grab one of four gaps, and six countries involved in an intercontinental play-off for the final two holes.
Those will all be decided early next year, so six of the spots in tomorrow’s draw will carry an asterisk.
Still, it at least gave the excellent Nick Miller and Tim Spiers the opportunity to rate all 64 countries still keeping their summer calendars open for next year’s tournament.
You can read the opus in full with the link below and if you’d like a taster, we’ll bring you some of the eye-catching elements right here.
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World Cup draw: Who is most likely to win? Ranking all 64 teams
Oh no. You can also throw in a “world-class entertainment line-up” including classical singer Andrea Bocelli, and a duet between British pop star (and FIFA music ambassador) Robbie Williams and American singer Nicole Scherzinger.
And it will all be co-hosted by supermodel, producer and Emmy-winning television personality Heidi Klum, comedian Kevin Hart plus actor and producer Danny Ramirez — and it’s going to be a busy night.
I know. You’re still stuck on Robbie Williams carrying the job title “FIFA music ambassador” aren’t you?
Me too.
Obviously, drawing 48 teams out of various pots to map out the 2026 World Cup finals is the primary function of tomorrow’s draw. Hopefully.
But FIFA and the organising committee have plenty of room around the edges to provide entertainment for those who can’t sustain themselves with the art of pulling names from transparent bins.
Oh yes. As reported by Adam Crafton, FIFA has announced that the Village People — the pop group that sings President Donald Trump’s adopted anthem of “Y.M.C.A.” — will perform at the World Cup draw Friday.
And yes, FIFA has already labelled their performance as “iconic”.
Few things scream fun more than a discussion over what to call football when it’s in the U.S.A. — and for the record, I can confirm there is the same issue in Australia.
We must be approaching the eve of a World Cup in the United States, hey?
Fortunately, the wonderful Harry Bushnell has had a fresh look into the key dual between the terms “football” and “soccer”, and had a go at applying its relevance in 2026.
As Meg Kane, leader of Philadelphia’s World Cup host committee told him …
💬 “Tongue-in-cheek,” Kane says, “is a good way to approach this topic.”
You see. Fun indeed. This one is fresh off the press (as in, just published) so enjoy.
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The World Cup is coming to North America: So in 2026, is it ‘football’ or ‘soccer’?
A good day to you all and thanks for checking in with us here, as we build up to tomorrow’s World Cup draw.
Things become just that bit more real once the countries are drawn out and their respective routes to success — whatever that looks like — start to carry some meaning.
And given everything that has built towards this point, we’ve got loads of insights and anecdotes to get you in the mood for what’s to come.
I’m sure we can have some fun along the way too. After all, look how excited FIFA president Gianni Infantino is …
Curacao is a Caribbean island that’s home to around only 185,000 people, and it felt like half of them spilt onto the pitch in celebration at reaching their first-ever World Cup on a dramatic night in Jamaica.
They are now the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup, breaking a record previously set by Iceland in 2018.
Two planes carrying Curacao’s most passionate supporters, or as captain Leandro Bacuna termed it, their “ultras”, were chartered to make sure the players would have some backing for their decisive qualifying match on Tuesday night at Jamaica’s National Stadium in Kingston.
Speaking of Curacao, it was a wonderful moment to see them book their place at next summer's World Cup a fortnight or so ago. The all-important result to get them over the line was a gutsy goalless draw away to Jamaica during the last international break.
Curacao is the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup with a population of roughly 185,000 people — 44 per cent of them could fit inside MetLife Stadium, the venue hosting next year's final!
Laurie Whitwell was lucky enough to be there to see Curacao make their World Cup dreams come true last month and penned a lovely piece on their qualification — check it out next…
That is the question being asked around the world.
In some ways, more teams qualifying for the World Cup is great for the global game with nations such as Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan qualifying for the first time. But opponents to the expanded tournament have said that teams like those being involved dilutes the quality of the matches.
What do you think to the expansion of the World Cup? Let us know by emailing live@theathletic.com and we'll get some of your thoughts in this coverage.
We are going to see something new in the next World Cup — a 48-team tournament for the first time. It ends a 24-year run of 32-team World Cups dating back to 1998.
That affects the tournament schedule, as it means we have a group stage consisting of 12 groups of four teams, followed by the following knockout stages: round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal and final.
At the end of the group stage, the top two teams in each group will automatically progress to the knockouts, as well as the eight highest finishing third-placed teams. For those hoping to be crowned world champions, it means winning one more match than in the past, with eight matches rather than seven standing between them and the famous trophy.
Even getting to this point of learning the groups for the World Cup has been a long time coming for fans and organisers spanning the three host countries next summer.
The collective bid from Mexico, Canada and the United States won a voting process at the FIFA Congress in 2018, beating a rival bid from African country Morocco in the final round.
It will be the first time since 2002 (South Korea and Japan) that more than one country has hosted a men’s World Cup tournament and the second time that men's World Cup football has been played on U.S. soil.
As I mentioned, we won't be returning to the U.S. capital for any games at the 2026 World Cup, which you might be surprised to hear.
They have a stadium that is big enough, Northwest Stadium with a 67,000-plus capacity that hosts the Washington Commanders, but it was not selected.
It will be only the third time the capital city of a host nation has not hosted a World Cup match after Bonn (West Germany) in 1974 and Tokyo (Japan) in 2002.
Henry Bushnell did a very nice job of explaining why D.C. was not selected as one of the 16 host cities.
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Why Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, won’t host 2026 World Cup matches
This is the only time we'll be in Washington D.C. with regards to the 2026 World Cup. Well, I should say 'one of the last times' as I'm sure Gianni Infantino will find his way back in the Oval Office between now and the summer.
16 host cities across three countries have been chosen to host matches at the tournament — here they are:
As a reminder, the World Cup begins on Thursday, June 11, 2026 and runs for 39 days with the final being played on Sunday, July 19, 2026.
It will follow the usual phases of the group stage followed by knockout rounds until we have our winner.