Sports
2026 World Cup draw: How to watch, start time, teams and how it works
Former Brazilian soccer player Cafu takes part in the 2022 World Cup draw in Qatar.
(Hussein Sayed / Associated Press)
The draw is the procedure used to assign the qualifying World Cup nations into 12 groups of four teams each. That will determine who, when and where each country will play in the first round of the tournament.
To begin the draw, the teams are divided into four pots of 12 teams based on the FIFA world rankings published Nov. 19. Team will be randomly chosen — or drawn — from each pot and assigned to one of the World Cup groups, lettered A through L in alphabetical order. Teams from the same pot cannot be assigned to the same group nor can teams from the same FIFA confederation.
The one exception is teams from UEFA, the massive confederation overseeing European soccer. It will send 16 teams to the World Cup, meaning two UEFA teams will be paired in four different groups.