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Lunchtime listening: Jonathan Liew on the political hue of next summer.
The technicalities are here, as picked through by Tom Lutz.
And how does the actual draw work?
The 48 teams have been divided into four pots containing 12 teams each. Pot 1 consists of the three co-hosts – USA, Mexico and Canada – along with the nine top teams in the current Fifa rankings. The next three pots were decided by the Fifa rankings, with the lowest-ranked qualified teams in Pot 4. The 12 groups for the World Cup will then be formed by one team from each pot (full pots listed later).
Sounds simple!
Well, not quite. There are still six qualification places to be decided via playoffs in late March, and teams involved in those matches have been placed in Pot 4. That means a team such as Italy will be ostensibly the weakest opponents in a group, even though they have won the World Cup four times and are ranked No 12 in the world, should they come through the European qualifying playoffs. Teams from the same qualifying conference should, in theory, not be in the same group. But that is impossible for European teams as Uefa will have 16 teams in the draw. There will, though, be a maximum of two European teams in any group. In addition, the top four teams in the Fifa rankings – Spain, Argentina, France and England – cannot face each other until the semi-finals (of course, they have to make it there first), provided they win their groups.
Preamble
Welcome to our live coverage of the draw for the World Cup 2026 finals. The USA, Canada and Mexico beckon, as perhaps do your travel plans. With 48 teams to be drawn, there will be plenty to get across, not least because not all of the finalists have yet been decided. We’re expecting glitz and glamour, and that’s just from Rio Ferdinand and Gianni Infantino, so join as we bring the latest from Washington DC. The town’s most famous semi-resident will make his usual splash, no doubt.
