Canada – along with the other 41 countries that have so far punched their tickets to next summer’s FIFA World Cup – will finally learn its fate on Friday, as the soccer world descends on Washington for the tournament draw.
Although the Canadian men’s national team has long known that it would be at this World Cup – its second straight and third in the federation’s history – what hasn’t been known is the identity of its three opponents in the round robin, beginning with its first game on June 12 at BMO Field in Toronto.
All will be revealed beginning at noon ET on Friday at the John F. Kennedy Center. FIFA president Gianni Infantino, U.S. President Donald Trump – whose lobbying for a Nobel Peace Prize could be appeased by the association’s creation of the FIFA Peace Prize – and assembled dignitaries and soccer legends will pull coloured balls out of buckets in a lavish televised event to fill out the different groups.
How the World Cup draw works
With the 2026 tournament having expanded by 50 per cent from three years ago in Qatar, there are now 48 teams to be divided up into 12 groups of four for the round robin.
For the purposes of the draw, the teams have been seeded into four pots of 12 teams, based on the FIFA world rankings as of Nov. 19, with the three co-hosts – Canada, Mexico and the United States – automatically placed in the first pot, along with the nine highest teams in the world rankings.
However, with only 42 of the 48 teams having qualified as of yet, there will be six placeholders in the draw to represent the teams that will qualify from the playoffs, scheduled for the end of March. However, all six will be placed in the fourth pot of seeds, opening the possibility that a team like four-time World Cup winner Italy (which, despite being ranked 12th in the world, will have to try to qualify through the playoffs) being drawn into a group with a top-seeded team like Brazil, England or Canada.
When the World Cup draw starts and how to watch
The draw takes place on Friday and will begin at 12 p.m. ET (9 a.m. PT) at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
Canadians can watch the draw live on TSN, or stream it online on FIFA’s website.
How FIFA determines the groups
World soccer’s governing body uses a sequential method to fill out the groups. Canada (Group B), Mexico (Group A) and the U.S. (Group D) are predetermined, with the nine other teams from the first pot being drawn out randomly, and each then being assigned to each of the remaining groups alphabetically.
From there, the teams from the second pot will be flowed in sequentially, then the third and finally the fourth.
Geographical constraints
FIFA abides by what it calls a “general principle, whenever possible” of ensuring that no group has more than one country from each of the six global soccer confederations. If there is a conflict, that team is moved to the next available group.
So if, say, World Cup newcomer Curaçao, which is a team from CONCACAF (the confederation which governs for North and Central America, and the Caribbean) was drawn into the same group as one of the co-hosts, which are also CONCACAF teams, then Curaçao would have to be reallocated to another group.
The notable exception to this rule is for the European confederation, or UEFA, which, with 55 members, is the biggest in world soccer. UEFA will have 16 qualified teams once the March playoffs are completed, and so there will be at least one UEFA team in every group, with a maximum of two. Case in point was four years ago in Qatar, where Canada was grouped with European teams in Croatia and Belgium, with Morocco rounding out the quartet.
Other wrinkles
For this World Cup, FIFA has built in pathways for each of the top four seeds, to ensure that, providing they win their round-robin groups, they cannot meet each other until at least the semi-finals.
The top-ranked teams are, in order: Spain, Argentina, France and England. So this tries to ensure that there will be no quarter-final meeting between, say, England and France, which happened last time around.
However, if any of those teams stumble in the round robin and finish as runner-up in their group, or even qualify for the knockout rounds as one of the eight best third-placed teams, there would be no such guarantee.
Canada’s group and possible opponents
New Zealand is one of the teams Canada might face first, if it is chosen from a pot that also includes Jordan, Haiti and Ghana.Matias Delacroix/The Associated Press
It could really go one of two ways for Canada, or anywhere in between. Under the draw procedure, Canada will open at BMO Field on June 12 against the team that is drawn from the fourth pot into Group B. So that could be a team like world No. 86 New Zealand, or it could be world No. 12 Italy, if it were to come through the playoffs.
From there, Canada will head west to Vancouver, where it will face the country from the third pot on June 18 before wrapping up its group stage play against the team from Pot 2 on June 24. So those games at BC Place could be against teams like Erling Haaland’s Norway or Mo Salah’s Egypt for the first one, followed by a possible 2022 rematch against Croatia or Morocco – both semifinalists four years ago – in the other.
The countries in each 2026 World Cup pot
- Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, U.S., Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany.
- 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, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European playoff winner A, B, C and D, FIFA playoff tournament winner 1 and 2.
New format dilutes risk of the group of death
World Cup newcomers such as Cape Verde, which clinched a spot at this Oct. 13 match in Praia, have the chance to face off against heavy hitters that are now more dispersed among the team groups.Cristiano Barbosa/The Associated Press
One of the concerns before FIFA approved a move to a 48-team World Cup seven years ago was the possibility of diluting the quality of games at the tournament.
With the bigger teams now spread across 12 groups they would therefore be more likely to miss being drawn against other World Cup behemoths and instead facing off against more World Cup first-timers, such as newcomers Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan.
Should teams such as Italy (world No. 12) and Denmark (world No. 21), or Turkey (world No. 25) come through the UEFA playoffs, they all have the potential to unsettle the balance of a group.
World Cup schedule to be announced Saturday
News of the World Cup schedule will come 24 hours after the draw, on Saturday at noon ET. Once the 12 groups have been finalized, FIFA will assign those games to the 16 World Cup host cities, along with kickoff times.
All the countries that have qualified for the 2026 World Cup, and their FIFA rankings
Here’s the full list of the 42 countries by region that will be drawn on Friday, with world rankings in parentheses.
CONCACAF (North & Central America and the Caribbean)
- Canada (27) Co-host
- Mexico (15) Co-host
- United States (14) Co-host
- Panama (30)
- Curaçao (82)
- Haiti (84)
UEFA (Europe)
- Spain (1)
- France (3)
- England (4)
- Portugal (6)
- Netherlands (7)
- Belgium (8)
- Germany (9)
- Croatia (10)
- Switzerland (17)
- Austria (24)
- Norway (29)
- Scotland (36)
CONMEBOL (South America)
- Argentina (2)
- Brazil (5)
- Colombia (13)
- Uruguay (16)
- Ecuador (23)
- Paraguay (39)
Confederation of African Football
- Morocco (11)
- Senegal (19)
- Egypt (34)
- Algeria (35)
- Tunisia (40)
- Ivory Coast (42)
- South Africa (61)
- Cape Verde (68)
- Ghana (72)
Asian Football Confederation
- Japan (18)
- Iran (20)
- South Korea (22)
- Australia (26)
- Uzbekistan (50)
- Qatar (51)
- Saudi Arabia (60)
- Jordan (66)
Oceania Football Confederation
- New Zealand (86)
Playoff teams still trying to qualify for the World Cup
In the UEFA region, there are 16 teams playing off for four spots next March, while in the rest of the world, six teams from the other five confederations will battle it out in Mexico for the right to advance.
Those will wrap up by the end of March, meaning we will have to wait until then to know fully how the groups and schedule look for next summer’s World Cup.
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