The 2026 World Cup is less than 200 days away with the draw for next summer’s tournament set to take place on Friday, 5 December.
Procedures that will govern the World Cup draw, which will take place in Washington D.C., have now been confirmed by FIFA, including pot allocation, draw rulings and pathways to the final.
It has brought up some fascinating potential final matchups, including England’s potential final opponents, as well as talking points for both qualified countries and those whose fate will be decided in March’s play-offs.
England's path to the World Cup semi-final is clear should they and the other top seeds top their group
Two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established while developing the match schedule to ensure competitive balance, which sees constraints applied to the four-highest ranked teams in the FIFA world rankings.
The highest-ranked team, European champions Spain, and the second highest-ranked team, World Cup holders Argentina, will be randomly drawn into opposite pathways, as will the third and fourth highest-ranked sides, which are France and England respectively.
This means that if Thomas Tuchel, Harry Kane and company are to end 60 years of hurt on the other side of the Atlantic next summer, they will not face Spain or Argentina until the semi-finals should all three countries win their groups.
The same goes for a potential final match up with France. The Three Lions were knocked out by Didier Deschamps’ then-holders in 2022 in heartbreaking fashion at the quarter-final stage with Harry Kane missing a second penalty late on in a 2-1 defeat.
The quartet make up a third of the Pot 1 nations, which includes the five other top-ranked nations (Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany) and the three hosts (Mexico, USA, Canada).
None of the 12 countries will be drawn into a group with a team from the same confederation. This applies to all confederations bar UEFA, which has 16 of the 48 teams in the newly expanded tournament, and means England could be in the same group as Scotland as they were at EURO 2020.
The Scots are in Pot 3 at their first World Cup since 1998, and as in France 28 years ago, could play in the opening game with Mexico slated to play the Pot 3 side drawn into their group on Thursday, 11 June at the Aztec Stadium, which will open the tournament for a record third time.
While the draw for the finals takes place on Friday, 5 December, the updated match schedule, including the stadium assigned to each match and the kick-off time, will be confirmed on Saturday.
This is to ensure the best possible conditions for all teams, as well as enabling fans across the globe to watch their teams play live across different time zones. England group games are likely to take place at either 5pm or 8pm BST as a result.
The pots for the draw are as follows, with Wales, Ireland and the Republic Ireland in Pot 4 should they qualify via the play-offs.
- Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
- Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, IR Iran, Korea Republic, Ecuador, Austria, Australia
- Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
- Pot 4: Jordan, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Play-Off A, B, C and D, FIFA Play-Off Tournament 1 and 2
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