{"id":174241,"date":"2025-12-04T13:08:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-cup-2026-draw-live-updates-buildup-and-latest-news-ahead-of-fridays-ceremony-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T13:08:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:08:20","slug":"world-cup-2026-draw-live-updates-buildup-and-latest-news-ahead-of-fridays-ceremony-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-cup-2026-draw-live-updates-buildup-and-latest-news-ahead-of-fridays-ceremony-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026 draw live updates: Buildup and latest news ahead of Friday\u2019s ceremony – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Cup
2026 World
Cup Draw
live
Updated

Obviously, drawing 48 teams out of various pots to map out the 2026 World Cup finals is the primary function of tomorrow\u2019s draw. Hopefully.
But FIFA and the organising committee have plenty of room around the edges to provide entertainment for those who can\u2019t sustain themselves with the art of pulling names from transparent bins.
Oh yes. As reported by Adam Crafton<\/em>, FIFA has announced that the Village People \u2014 the pop group that sings President Donald Trump\u2019s adopted anthem of \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d \u2014 will perform at the World Cup draw Friday.
And yes, FIFA has already labelled their performance as \u201ciconic\u201d.
Few things scream fun more than a discussion over what to call football when it\u2019s in the U.S.A. \u2014 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<\/em> has had a fresh look into the key dual between the terms \u201cfootball\u201d and \u201csoccer\u201d, and had a go at applying its relevance in 2026.
As Meg Kane, leader of Philadelphia\u2019s World Cup host committee told him \u2026
💬 \u201cTongue-in-cheek,\u201d Kane says, \u201cis a good way to approach this topic.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
You see. Fun indeed. This one is fresh off the press (as in, just published) so enjoy.
GO FURTHER
The World Cup is coming to North America: So in 2026, is it \u2018football\u2019 or \u2018soccer\u2019?
A good day to you all and thanks for checking in with us here, as we build up to tomorrow\u2019s World Cup draw.
Things become just that bit more real once the countries are drawn out and their respective routes to success \u2014 whatever that looks like \u2014 start to carry some meaning.
And given everything that has built towards this point, we\u2019ve got loads of insights and anecdotes to get you in the mood for what\u2019s to come.
I\u2019m sure we can have some fun along the way too. After all, look how excited FIFA president Gianni Infantino is \u2026
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. <\/span>
They are now the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup, breaking a record previously set by Iceland in 2018.<\/span>
Two planes carrying Curacao\u2019s most passionate supporters, or as captain Leandro Bacuna termed it, their \u201cultras\u201d, were chartered to make sure the players would have some backing for their decisive qualifying match on Tuesday night at Jamaica\u2019s National Stadium in Kingston.<\/span>
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 \u2014 44 per cent of them could fit inside MetLife Stadium, the venue hosting next year's final!
Laurie Whitwell <\/em>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 \u2014 check it out next\u2026
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 \u2014 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\u2019s 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 <\/em>did a very nice job of explaining why D.C. was not selected as one of the 16 host cities.
GO FURTHER
Why Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, won\u2019t 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Cup2026 WorldCup DrawliveUpdated 6m agoFollow the latest from Washington D.C. as we build up to tomorrow's 2026 World Cup draw.We will be previewing the draw \u2014 as well as next summer's tournament itself \u2014 over the course of the day and will be hearing from some of our reporters on the ground and around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-174241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}