Starting from 6pm today, Friday 5 December, the groups of the tournament hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada between 11 June and 19 July 2026 will take shape. Italy has yet to obtain one of the six remaining places
While waiting for the return of the World Football Championships to the American continent, today will be the first fundamental moment of the competition. The 12 groups of the tournament will be defined live from Washington. The starting time is 6pm Italian time and the draw will be broadcast on Sky Sport, as well as streaming on NOW, Sky Go, Fifa+ and Dazn (live text on Gazzetta.it). The draw will be carried out based on the 4 foreseen pots (12 teams per pot), based on the FIFA world ranking. At the moment, only the three host teams are certain of their respective groups, and as such they have automatically been included in the first group. Mexico will occupy Group A, Canada will occupy Group B and the United States will occupy Group D. The other 39 teams, including Italy if they qualify, will be drawn based on their ranking. There will be a fundamental restriction: there cannot be two national teams from the same confederation in a single group (with the exception of UEFA which has 16 teams).
the bands
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These are the brackets, with their respective FIFA ranking numbers:
- Band 1 Spain (1), Argentina (2), France (3), England (4), Brazil (5), Portugal (6), Holland (7), Belgium (8), Germany (9), United States (14), Mexico (15), Canada (27).
- Pot 2 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).
- Band 3 Norway (29), Panama (30), Egypt (34), Algeria (35), Scotland (36), Paraguay (39), Tunisia (40), Ivory Coast (42), Uzbekistan (60), Qatar (51), Saudi Arabia (60), South Africa (61).
- Pot 4 Jordan (66), Cape Verde (68), Ghana (72), Curaçao (82), Haiti (84), New Zealand (86), UEFA A play-offs (that of Italy, ed.), UEFA B play-offs, UEFA C play-offs, UEFA D play-offs, Fifa 1 play-offs, Fifa 2 play-offs.
THE situation in Italy
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Our national team, as is widely known, will have to play for one of the six remaining places in the competition, aware that, regardless of the result, in the event of qualification it will be placed in the fourth pot. In fact, Italy will participate in the UEFA A Play-offs, one of the four planned for our confederation which will be added to the two intercontinental FIFA Play-offs. Gattuso’s team will have to face Northern Ireland (on March 26th in Bergamo) and possibly between Wales and Bosnia on the 31st of the same month, in that case away.
where to see it
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The 2026 World Cup draw will be broadcast on Sky Sports. Streaming on NOW, Sky Go, Fifa+ and Dazn. Text live on Gazzetta.it.
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