The stage is set for the FIFA World Cup draw on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as FIFA has released the final pots for the 48 teams competing in the World Cup. These pots are based on the FIFA Men's World Rankings: the three host nations (USA, Canada and Mexico) are joined in pot one by the nine teams ranked next in the rankings. These are then followed by the next 12 highest ranked teams making up the second pot, the third pot and so on until the fourth pot contains the play-off winners of both the UEFA play-offs and the inter-confederation play-offs.
world cup pots
The official banks are as follows:
- Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium,
- Germany
- Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, SenegalAND Iran, Republic of Korea,
- EcuadorAustria, Australia
- Pot 3: Norway, Panama, EgyptAlgeria, Scotland, Paraguay, TunisiaCote d'Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar,
- Saudi ArabiaSouth Africa
- Pot 4: JordanCape Verde, GhanaCuracao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Playoffs A, B, C and D, FIFA, Playoff Tournaments 1 and 2
Looking at the pots, you can see some loaded groups, such as the United States getting Morocco, Norway and Ghana in one group, or Brazil, Japan, Egypt and Italy (if they make it out of the European playoffs) making up a group. Despite the expansion to 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup, the groups will be balanced and challenging.
Draw restrictions
No group can have more than one team from the same federation, with the exception of UEFA, which is required to have two groups of two UEFA teams in it, since the tournament will have 16 teams participating. For the playoff tournament teams, confederation restrictions will apply to all teams participating in the playoffs, which will prevent host countries from attracting a team participating in the FIFA playoff tournament, as Jamaica and Suriname participate as Concacaf teams.
