GENEVA (AP) — Next week's draw for the 2026 World Cup will reward the four highest-ranked teams – Spain, Argentina, France and England – into separate sections of a new seeded tennis-style tournament draw.
FIFA said Tuesday that the top four teams in the latest men's rankings, if they finish first in their round-robin groups, will avoid each other until the semifinals of the June 11-July 19 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Thus, defending champions Argentina with Lionel Messi and leading European champions Spain with Lamin Yamal can guarantee that they will not meet until the final at MetLife Stadium near New York.
“To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established,” FIFA said in a statement, seeking to reward teams whose consistently good performances have boosted their world rankings.
At previous World Cups, teams' path to and through the knockout stages was determined by which group they were placed into.
The draw ceremony for the inaugural 48-team World Cup will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, in the presence of US President Donald Trump.
The 42 teams already qualified include Iran and Haiti, which FIFA expects will play where they are selected regardless of those countries' difficult politics with the United States. The 16 locations for 104 games include 11 cities with NFL stadiums in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada.
The remaining six participants will be determined in March when the European and global playoff brackets are scheduled, and all of these teams will emerge from the draw for the lowest-ranked teams.
That means four-time champions Italy could be a dangerous option in next week's Friday draw, which will determine the fixtures by placing teams in 12 round-robin groups of four teams each.
Europe has 16 teams and a maximum of two teams can be placed in one group. The remaining 32 teams in the tournament cannot be placed in a group with a team from the same continent.
The three co-hosts are among the top 12 seeds in the draw, which will last about 45 minutes during the show, which will last about an hour and a half, according to FIFA.
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World Championship seeding draw
Basket 1: Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, USA, Mexico, Canada.
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia.
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.
Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Play-Off Winner 1, Play-Off Winner Europe 2, Play-Off Winner Europe 3, Play-Off Winner Europe 4, Intercontinental Play-Off Winner 1, Intercontinental Play-Off Winner 2.
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