World Cup 2026 draw live: England, Scotland and hosts USA discover group-stage opponents and routes to final

Trump’s administration is preparing to expand a travel ban enacted in June. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday that she plans to recommend a “full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”

The restrictions have ensnared two countries that have qualified for the quadrennial tournament — Iran and Haiti. The ban bars entry to the U.S. for citizens from 12 countries, and there are heightened restrictions for visitors from seven others.

The ban includes exceptions for World Cup athletes, coaches, “persons performing a necessary support role” and their immediate relatives. Fans, a major source of tourism revenue for any World Cup event, from those banned nations cannot enter.

Iran has said it will boycott the draw at the Kennedy Center after visas were denied to key members of its delegation.

President Donald Trump will of course take centre stage at today’s World Cup draw in Washington, rolling out the welcome mat for teams and fans from around the globe at a time when his administration is expanding restrictions on travel to the United States for people from 19 countries and he has hardened his rhetoric against immigrants.

The administration is betting that its push to expedite visa processing for visitors and the excitement about the matchups for next summer’s tournament — hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico — will outweigh concerns that Trump’s immigration messaging undercuts the theme of global unity that the World Cup is meant to represent.

In the past week, Trump has said he wants to permanently pause immigration from poor countries and he has singled out Afghans and Somalis for particular contempt. The Republican president is also overseeing the signing a peace agreement between Rwanda and Congo on Thursday at an event with leaders from a host of foreign countries and he is expected to be honored for his peacemaking efforts by Fifa, international football’s governing body, during the World Cup draw.

Critics say the dueling messages are jarring.

“The Cup is supposed to be a moment when the world comes together, puts aside the differences to celebrate sport, and while it symbolizes the world coming together, you have a president of the United States who is trying to keep the world out, to keep people out,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Right there at the most fundamental level, you have a president who represents everything that the World Cup does not stand for,” Van Hollen said.

The bizarre but unsurprising decision to lift the suspension that should have ruled Ronaldo out of Portugal’s opening World Cup games damages the sporting integrity Fifa is meant to uphold above all else.

Some pre-draw reading, by Miguel Delaney in Washington DC:

The host nations’ group games have already been fixed. So, we know that Mexico will be in Group A, Canada will be in Group B, and USA will be in Group… D, for some reason.

Mexico will kick off the tournament in their capital city, before their fellow hosts play the following day in Toronto and LA.

Mexico: June 11 (Mexico City), June 18 (Guadalajara) and June 24 (Mexico City).

Canada: June 12 (Toronto), June 18 (Vancouver) and June 24 (Vancouver).

United States: June 12 (Los Angeles), June 19 (Seattle) and June 25 (Los Angeles).

The draw will be conducted while keeping in mind some additional requirements:

— Each group must have at least one European team, but no more than two.

— Aside from Uefa (Europe), no two teams from the same confederation can be in the same group. The other confederations are the AFC (Asia) and Caf (Africa), Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean), Conmebol (South America) and the OFC (Oceania).

Remember: Suriname play in Concacaf and Australia play in the AFC, but New Zealand are part of the OFC, because nothing is ever simple.

Finally, pot 4 contains the six lowest ranked teams including three debutants, one of whom is the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao off the coast of Venezuela.

The six play-off winners will end up in this pot, eventually – four from the Uefa play-offs and two from the inter-continental play-offs. More about those fixtures shortly.

Jordan (66) – debutCape Verde (68) – debutGhana (72)Curaçao (82) – debutHaiti (84)New Zealand (86)Uefa PO winner: Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina or Italy or Northern Ireland Uefa PO winner: Ukraine or Sweden or Poland or AlbaniaUefa PO winner: Slovakia or Kosovo or Turkey or RomaniaUefa PO winner: Czech Republic or Republic of Ireland or Denmark or North MacedoniaIC play-off winner: Bolivia or Suriname or IraqIC play-off winner: Jamaica or New Caledonia or DR Congo

Pot 3 contains five African nations and two from the Middle East, as well as debutants Uzbekistan. Scotland are here too, back on the World Cup stage after 28 years away.

Norway (29)Panama (30)Egypt (34)Algeria (35)Scotland (36)Paraguay (39)Tunisia (41)Ivory Coast (42)Uzbekistan (50) – debutQatar (54)Saudi Arabia (60)South Africa (61)

Pot 2 contains the next batch of qualified teams, based on world rankings. It is a diverse pot with only three European nations and most of the continental federations are representated here – Australia just snuck in.

Croatia (10)Morocco (11)Colombia (13)Uruguay (16)Switzerland (17)Japan (18)Senegal (19)Iran (20)South Korea (22)Ecuador (23)Austria (24)Australia (26)

So, here is how the pots shape up.

Pot 1 contains the top nine ranked nations, plus the three hosts. It is fair to say that those teams in pots 2, 3 and 4 might prefer taking on Canada – even if it is away from home – in the group stage, rather than meeting some of the heavyweights.

Mexico (co-host) (Current Fifa ranking: 15)Canada (co-host) (27)United States (co-host) (14)Spain (1)Argentina (2)France (3)England (4)Brazil (5)Portugal (6)Netherlands (7)Belgium (8)Germany (9)

Of course, 12 groups does not easily make for a knockout stage. So, the top two finishers in each group will qualify automatically for the last-32, along with the eight best third-placed teams.

The ranking of the third-placed teams will be determined by points, then goal difference, then goals scored. If two or more teams are still level, then “team conduct scores” will come into play (a yellow card is minus one point, a red card via two yellow cards is minus three points, and a straight red card is minus four). If still equal, the team with the highest world ranking will progress.