Where and when will the 2026 World Cup draw take place?

On October 15, FIFA officially announced that the draw ceremony for the 2026 World Cup finals will take place at 11 p.m. (Vietnam time) on December 5, at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC (USA).

Up to now, a total of 28/48 teams have officially qualified for the final round, including the 3 co-host teams: the US, Mexico and Canada.

Specifically, the Asian region with 8 teams that have passed the qualifying round is Japan, Korea, Iran, Australia, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

6 teams from South America are Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay and Paraguay; 1 team from Oceania is New Zealand.

The nine teams from the African region are Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

England became the first team from Europe to qualify for the finals.

The upcoming schedule will determine three more places in the CONCACAF region, 15 places in the European region and two places in the intercontinental play-off round taking place in March 2026.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first year with 48 teams participating in the finals. This expansion will entail changes in the competition format. According to the new FIFA regulations, the 48 teams will be divided into 12 groups of 4 teams each. This means that the number of matches will increase from 64 (2022) to a total of 104 matches.

After the group stage, the top two teams in each group and the eight best third-placed teams advance to the round of 32. The teams will then be paired off for a round of 16, followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.

The 2026 World Cup will take place from June 11 to July 19, 2026. The opening match will be held at Mexico City's Azteca Stadium and the final will be at MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey.

A total of 16 cities from the three co-host countries will host matches at the 2026 World Cup. Canada has two cities, Toronto and Vancouver; Mexico has three cities, Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey; the US has 11 cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.

According to the announced schedule, most of the matches at the 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States. From the quarterfinals, matches will be held at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. In the semi-finals, matches will be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The 2026 World Cup final will be held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on July 19, 2026, followed a day earlier by the third-place match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/le-boc-tham-world-cup-2026-dien-ra-o-dau-khi-nao-175103.html