With Donald Trump's influence in choosing the venue and even restricting visas for federation officials, the draw for the 2026 World Cup will take place today under tight security at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The US president will be joined at the event by Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The draw will determine the group stage matches for the first 48-team World Cup. However, the match schedule and venues will not be announced until tomorrow, as the political and geographical contexts of each participant will be taken into account.
Trump's demands began with the selection of the draw's venue. Initially, it was scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, the site of the 1994 World Cup, the only one the United States had hosted to date. However, the magnate requested that the ceremony be moved to Washington, D.C., due to its political symbolism as the nation's capital, even though Washington is not on the list of host cities for the tournament.
Thus, the Kennedy Center was chosen, a cultural complex for ballet, opera and theater productions, which is located just 15 minutes from the White House.
The building will also be the venue where Trump is expected to receive the newly created FIFA Peace Prize, even though the Republican has been characterized by discriminatory management and by supporting Israel in the genocide against Gaza.
Although the venue was still in a calm atmosphere on Thursday, large security operations were expected to be implemented today, as the leaders of the three organizing countries, as well as representatives of each qualified team, will be attending.
The attendance of federation officials from the countries that had qualified also caused a stir; initially, Iran announced it would not attend the draw because the United States had denied visas to several of its officials, including the president of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj. However, at the last minute, it reversed its decision and announced that coach Amir Ghalenoei would be present, along with two other members of its football committee.
The immigration restrictions imposed by Trump, which affect Iran and Haiti – which are part of the list of countries with limited entry to the United States – also caused the schedule of games to not be announced on the same day as the draw, atypically.
Due to decades-long political tensions between the United States and Iran, the Asian country, as well as Haiti, are expected to play in Mexico or Canada.
Novel format
The participating teams were divided into four pots, each containing 12 teams according to the FIFA world ranking.
Each pot will contribute one team until 12 groups are completed, each of four teams, to seek their passage to the round of 16, to which the first two from each group will qualify, as well as the eight best third-placed teams.
FIFA created a system in which the top four teams in the standings – Spain, Argentina, France, and England – cannot face each other until the semifinals. No team can be in the same group as another from the same confederation, except for UEFA, which will have 16 representatives.
Pot one contains the countries that will be seeded: United States, Mexico, Canada, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Group 2 consists of Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria and Australia
Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, are in pot three.
Pot four contains Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, plus four winners of the UEFA playoffs and two winners of the intercontinental playoffs.
