The World Football Governing Body, FIFA, will today host the draw for the 2026 World Cup in the United States of America.
Next year’s tournament will be hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada.
FIFA, this time around, has increased the number of countries participating in the World Cup. Out of 48 countries that are expected to partake in the games, 42 have secured their spots.
The remaining 6 spots will go to countries that will win the playoffs expected to take place next spring. According to FIFA, the countries that are yet to have the playoffs will be drawn as placeholders: European Playoff winner A, B, C, D and FIFA Playoff winner 1 and 2.
Argentina is coming to the games as defending champions after topping CONMEBOL.
In Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Cape Verde, and Ivory Coast have qualified for the games.
DR Congo is expected to take part in the playoffs to book a place at the games next year.
The Draw
48 teams will be drawn into 12 groups of four teams. With reference to the FIFA rankings, teams have been arranged into four pots with each team from Pot 1 being drawn into one of the 12 groups, followed by each team from Pot 2 being drawn into one of the groups and so on.
The three co-hosts are considered top seeds and so they will avoid Spain, Argentina, England, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Brazil, Belgium and Germany. Mexico (A) Canada (B) and USA (D) already know which groups they will be drawn into, and they know the venues for their three group games.
There can only be two teams from European confederation UEFA in each group, and no other confederation can have more than one team in a group. Once the draw is complete, the teams and their fans can map out potential routes to the final, with a better sense of the 16 host cities they might visit along the way.
Who Will Host the 2026 World Cup Draw?
Kevin Hart and Danny Ramirez are co-hosting the event along with Heidi Klum, with the trio joined onstage at various points by Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky, Aaron Judge and Shaquille O’Neal. Eli Manning is hosting the red carpet, and the musical performers are Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams, Nicole Scherzinger and the Village People.
Meanwhile, former England captain Rio Ferdinand will conduct the actual draw on Friday with the help of broadcaster Samantha Johnson.
How To Watch The World Cup Draw
In the U.S., Fox will air the event live, kicking things off with a pre-show at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT, before the draw officially starts at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT. The broadcast will run for about two hours and include post-draw analysis.
Spanish-language viewers can watch it live on Telemundo and Telemundo Deportes, where coverage begins a bit earlier at 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT.
In the UK, fans can tune in from 5 p.m. GMT on BBC One or stream it on BBC iPlayer.
In Canada, the draw will air live on TSN and also stream on TSN’s YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, viewers in Australia will need an early start on Saturday, with the draw available on SBS, SBS Viceland, and SBS On Demand.
In Ghana, there is a watch party taking place at the Accra Sports Stadium where followers of football can join in an ensure that they have a feel of the draw to know the countries Ghana will be faced with.
