The 2026 World Cup draw was held in Miami in December 2025. Forty-eight teams, 12 groups of four. The US, Mexico, and Canada were placed directly into separate groups as automatic seeds.
Group A has the United States alongside teams from South America, Europe, and Africa. Mexico leads Group B. Canada is in Group C with Asian and South American opponents.
Group E drew England against a strong South American side in what looks like an early knockout game dressed up as a group match. Group F put two former champions in the same group. Group H has Morocco, who will have a significant away support across US cities given how large the North African diaspora is in places like New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit.
Seeding ran through four pots. Pot 1 was the three hosts plus the five highest-ranked remaining teams at the time of the draw. Pots 2, 3, and 4 filled out the rest by FIFA ranking. Confederation rules kept teams from the same region apart in most cases, though UEFA had to be given some exemptions because 16 European teams cannot all be kept in different groups when there are only 12.
Each team plays three group stage matches. The top two from each group advance. Eight of the 12 third-placed teams also go through, chosen by comparing their points and goal difference against all other third-placed finishers across the 12 groups.