FIFA alters World Cup draw format so top sides won't meet early - ESPN

The 2026 World Cup draw on Dec. 5 will reward the four highest-ranked teams — Spain, Argentina, France and England — which will be placed in separate sections of a new tennis-style seeded tournament bracket.

FIFA said Tuesday the top four teams in the latest men's rankings will, if they finish top of their respective round-robin groups, avoid each other until the semifinals of the June 11-July 19 tournament being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Defending champion Argentina with Lionel Messi and top-ranked European champion Spain with Lamine Yamal therefore can ensure they do not meet until the final at MetLife Stadium near New York.

At previous World Cups, the path for teams into and through the knockout phase was decided by which group they were drawn into.

The draw, to be held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., will see 48 teams placed into four pots from which they will be drawn into 12 groups of four teams. An updated match schedule, assigning each match to a stadium with its respective kickoff time, will be released on Saturday, Dec. 6. The draw is scheduled to take about 45 minutes during a show lasting about an hour and a half, FIFA said.

The three host countries have been placed into Pot 1 along with the nine highest-ranked countries based on FIFA's rankings. These include Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The 42 teams that already qualified include Iran and Haiti, which FIFA expects will play exactly where they are drawn regardless of complicated politics those countries have with the U.S. The 16 host venues for the 104 games include 11 cities with NFL stadiums in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada.

The other six entries