2026 World Cup Draw: What Are Pots?

Before the World Cup begins next summer, all 48 teams – include the U.S. men's national team and fellow co-hosts Canada and Mexico – will need to know who their opponents will be, which cities they'll play in, and their path to the final. 

How does that get figured out? Get ready for the World Cup draw. There are a lot of complicated rules around the draw. With some help from USMNT legend and FOX Sports soccer analyst Alexi Lalas, we explain all you need to know about the draw. 

The World Cup draw will be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Dec. 5 at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT. The draw will air live on FOX and be streamed on FOX One, FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports App. Coverage for the event that will decide the groups for all 48 teams will begin with a live pre-show at 11:30 AM ET/8:30 AM PT. 

The draw will take place from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET and upon its conclusion, live coverage on FOX will continue until 3:00 PM ET providing instant analysis, reactions and interviews.

The World Cup will run from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Spread across three countries, the tournament will culminate with the final 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.

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