How to watch the World Cup Draw Live
The World Cup Draw is airing live on FOX and is also being streamed on FOX One, FOXSports.com, and the FOX Sports App.
Heidi Klum and Kevin Hart co-hosting star-studded World Cup Draw
Supermodel and TV personality Heidi Klum and actor-comedian Kevin Hart are co-hosting the draw alongside actor-producer Danny Ramirez from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Former NFL star Eli Manning is the red carpet host.
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Sports greats on stage for the draw
Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Wayne Gretzky, and Aaron Judge will be on stage for the draw, being run by former England captain Rio Ferdinand with broadcaster Samantha Johnson.
Musical performances
Andrea Bocelli, the Village People, Robbie Williams, and Nicole Scherzinger will perform.
How the World Cup Draw works
The draw will finalize the group stage for the first 48-team World Cup, setting the stage for the largest and most ambitious tournament in FIFA history.
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48 teams will be split into 12 groups (A–L) of four teams each.
- The top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams advance to the Round of 32.
- Teams are separated into four pots, based on their FIFA World Ranking (as of November 2025).
- One team is drawn from each pot to form every group, ensuring that no two teams from the same confederation (except Europe) are drawn together.
The format is designed to increase global representation while maintaining competitive balance — and to guarantee at least three matches for every team.
FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Draw pots
The tournament host countries, Canada, Mexico and the USA, will be allocated to pot 1, and the 39 remaining qualified teams will be allocated to the four pots of 12 teams. The final six spots will be determined in March with two tournaments.
- Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
- Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, 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
What are Pots? How Does It Determine Groups?
The 48 participating teams (or qualifying slots) will be placed into “pots” based on criteria such as FIFA rankings and confederation constraints. We already know 42 of those 48 teams ahead of the draw. The other six teams will be known by March 2026.
Each of the four pots will have 12 teams (with placeholders for those six March teams). And each group will therefore have one team from each pot.
Each team’s name is written on a slip of paper inside a plastic ball and put in large glass bowls (pots) numbered 1 through 4. A representative (often a soccer legend or celebrity) will then draw one ball from each pot, open it up, and call out the country’s name.
For pot 1, Canada, Mexico and the USA, as the host countries, will be identified by different colored balls and, when drawn, will be assigned to position A1 for Mexico (green ball), B1 for Canada (red ball) and D1 for the USA (blue ball), as already established per the match schedule released. The remaining nine top-ranked teams in pot 1 will be identified by nine balls of the same color and automatically allocated to the top position of the group into which they are drawn.
FIFA announced that the highest-ranked team (Spain) and the second highest-ranked team (Argentina) will be randomly drawn into opposite sides of the bracket, as well as the third (France) and fourth (England) highest-ranked teams. This will ensure that, should those four teams win their groups, they won’t meet until the semifinals.
When is the World Cup?
The World Cup will run from June 11 to July 19, 2026, with matches taking place in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The final will take place on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The FOX family of networks and the FOX Sports app are your complete home for World Cup content, including live matches, complete highlights, commentary and analysis, and full-match replays.
