WC 2026 Seedings

[dr. bellows]

I look forward to us drawing Scotland and the Souttar brothers lining up against each other.

 

[verrelli]

So one sudden death game for Arnie, winner takes all!

 

[JS96]

Which pot could each team be in for the 2026 World Cup draw? Expected pots, predictions, how it works

There is still a lot to figure out before the 2026 World Cup draw, and here is a look at how things could play out in terms of the all-important pots.

www.nbcsports.com

This is most recent while dumb sites released a pot set before all the qualifiers were played.

 

[JS96]

Imagine if we get Canada, Austria and NZ. I'd take Belgium, Panama, DR Congo if they make it. Ohhh Congo Belgium for the colonial trophy!

We can draw Scotland....

 

[Dan_The_Red]

Feel like we scumbaged our way into Pot 2, and ill take it.

 

[grazorblade]

Feel like we scumbaged our way into Pot 2, and ill take it.

Ill scumbag my way to the round of 16 in the world cup and win the asian cup if it happens

 

[JS96]

Apparently they're set.

 

[JS96]

𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟: World Cup draw pots are now set.

— Pot 1:

• Spain
• Argentina
• France
• England
• Brazil
• Portugal
• Netherlands
• Belgium
• Germany
• United States
• Mexico
• Canada

— Pot 2:

• Croatia
• Morocco
• Colombia
• Uruguay
• Switzerland
• Japan
• Senegal
• Iran
• South Korea
• Ecuador
• Austria
• Australia

— Pot 3:

• Norway
• Panama
• Egypt
• Algeria
• Scotland
• Paraguay
• Tunisia
• Ivory Coast
• Uzbekistan
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• South Africa

— Pot 4

• Jordan
• Cape Verde
• Ghana
• Curaçao
• Haiti
• New Zealand
• European Playoff 1
• European Playoff 2
• European Playoff 3
• European Playoff 4
• Intercontinental Playoff 1
• Intercontinental Playoff 2

 

[JS96]

Actually. I'll put this into chatgpt now and make sure it knows not to draw non UEFA together. On draw night we'll see a few balls drawn and certain pairings will become very clear.

Pot 2 and 3 have seemingly limited combinations once you start to see all the potential clashes.

 

[JS96]

Final draw​

Group A
• Spain (UEFA)
• Morocco (CAF)
• Saudi Arabia (AFC)
• Curaçao (CONCACAF)


Group B
• Argentina (CONMEBOL)
• Switzerland (UEFA)
• Tunisia (CAF)
• Jordan (AFC)


Group C
• France (UEFA)
• Japan (AFC)
• Ivory Coast (CAF)
• Haiti (CONCACAF)


Group D
• England (UEFA)
• Colombia (CONMEBOL)
• Norway (UEFA) — (UEFA #2)
• New Zealand (OFC)


Group E
• Brazil (CONMEBOL)
• Senegal (CAF)
• Uzbekistan (AFC)
• Denmark (UEFA)


Group F
• Portugal (UEFA)
• Iran (AFC)
• Egypt (CAF)
• Italy (UEFA) — (UEFA #2)


Group G
• Netherlands (UEFA)
• Australia (AFC)
• Algeria (CAF)
• Poland (UEFA) — (UEFA #2)


Group H
• Belgium (UEFA)
• Croatia (UEFA) — (UEFA #2)
• South Africa (CAF)
• Iraq (AFC)


Group I
• Germany (UEFA)
• Austria (UEFA) — (UEFA #2)
• Panama (CONCACAF)
• Cape Verde (CAF)


Group J
• United States (CONCACAF)
• South Korea (AFC)
• Paraguay (CONMEBOL)
• Turkey (UEFA)


Group K
• Mexico (CONCACAF)
• Uruguay (CONMEBOL)
• Scotland (UEFA)
• DR Congo (CAF)


Group L
• Canada (CONCACAF)
• Ecuador (CONMEBOL)
• Qatar (AFC)
• Ghana (CAF)

 

[JS96]

Yeah, we're fucked! It'll be a tough draw regardless.

Second shuffle

• Argentina
• Australia
• Egypt
• Italy

Third shuffle

• Argentina (CONMEBOL)
• Australia (AFC)
• Scotland (UEFA)
• Curaçao (CONCACAF)

 

[ftbl-newb]

Feel like we scumbaged our way into Pot 2, and ill take it.

100% this after the unbeaten in WCQ I felt we were at least in the ball park for Pot 2 -
- after beating Canada "pot 2 it's our diving right!"
- after the last 3 games "pot 4 here we come!"

 

[NicCarBel]

Yeah, we're fucked! It'll be a tough draw regardless.

Second shuffle

• Argentina
• Australia
• Egypt
• Italy

Third shuffle

• Argentina (CONMEBOL)
• Australia (AFC)
• Scotland (UEFA)
• Curaçao (CONCACAF)

That third one seems fun. Don't see us getting out of the first two you did though

 

[LFC]

That third one seems fun. Don't see us getting out of the first two you did though

haha crystal ball stuff to me - what really concerns me its the only time we'll see Italy in pot predictions after the next window hahaha

 

[NicCarBel]

haha crystal ball stuff to me - what really concerns me its the only time we'll see Italy in pot predictions after the next window hahaha

I think they qualify if they get past the first game - that's going to be the tough one. Struggling to score in most of their games

 

[NicCarBel]

Ok so I'm going to use points and standings etc on the table of the actual qualification that took place for 2026, and then essentially make the big ladder out of it to determine the bottom teams of certain levels to knock out. So your 2026 FIFA World Cup (old style) finalists would be:

CONCACAF
USA (Hosts)
Mexico (Hosts)
Canada (Hosts)
Curacao

CONMEBOL
Argentina
Ecuador
Colombia
Uruguay

AFC
Iran
South Korea
Japan
Uzbekistan

UEFA
England
France
Croatia
Portugal
Norway
Germany
Netherlands
Belgium
Austria
Switzerland
Spain
Scotland
1x Playoff Winner

CAF
Tunisia
Ivory Coast
Egypt
Ghana
Algeria

Intercontinental Playoffs (2 of these would qualify)
Panama
Australia
New Zealand
Brazil

 

[JS96]

 

[NicCarBel]

I don't want to put this into the main draw thread - but, I am bored on a Thursday night, and was watching some videos explaining the draw intricacies, and I thought to myself "I wonder what the draw would have looked like, had this been a 32 nation World Cup?"

Now, earlier - I created a qualification list based off the final standings of groups, to determine who would qualify for the 2026 OG World Cup:
CONCACAF
USA (Hosts)
Mexico (Hosts)
Canada (Hosts)
Curacao

CONMEBOL
Argentina
Ecuador
Colombia
Uruguay

AFC
Iran
South Korea
Japan
Uzbekistan

UEFA
England
France
Croatia
Portugal
Norway
Germany
Netherlands
Belgium
Austria
Switzerland
Spain
Scotland
1x Playoff Winner (I'll just call that UEFA PO)

CAF
Tunisia
Ivory Coast
Egypt
Ghana
Algeria

Intercontinental Playoffs (2 of these would qualify)
Panama
Australia
New Zealand
Brazil

Now, I'm going to also randomly draw the two confederations to play eachother in the Intercontinental Playoffs:

• CONCACAF v AFC
• OFC v CONMEBOL

So that would mean Panama v Australia, and New Zealand v Brazil

It's worth noting that, FIFA would still have probably held the playoffs after the draw, because they're fucking idiots - so I am going to keep that same process (although, I'm tempted to do a draw after the playoffs, where the playoff winners are all placed and seeded into pots via their rankings - as was the case prior to the 2022 World Cup)

Next I'm going to split the pots (4 pots of 8) using the same system that was used (hosts + top 5 in Pot 1, Pot 2 with ranks 6-13, Pot 3 with ranks 14-21, and Pot 4 with ranks 22-26 and the 3x playoffs)

POT 1

1. Canada
2. Mexico
3. USA
4. Spain
5. Argentina
6. France
7. England
8. Portugal

POT 2

1. Netherlands
2. Belgium
3. Germany
4. Croatia
5. Colombia
6. Uruguay
7. Switzerland
8. Japan

POT 3

1. Iran
2. Korea
3. Ecuador
4. Austria
5. Norway
6. Egypt
7. Algeria
8. Scotland

POT 4

1. Tunisia
2. Ivory Coast
3. Uzbekistan
4. Ghana
5. Curacao
6. CONCACAF / AFC Playoff Winner
7. OFC / CONMEBOL Playoff Winner
8. UEFA Playoff Winner

The draw will be held with the same general constraints:

• No confederation shall have more than one nation in a single group, with the exception of UEFA, who must have a minimum of 1, and a maximum of 2.
  • For the purposes of maintaining this principle, the 2x Intercontinental Playoff matchups will be drawn in a way so that regardless of who wins, they will not be playing a nation from the same confederation.
• The top 4 ranked nations (Spain, Argentina, France, England) to be kept in separate quarters of the draw - with 1 and 2 being on separate halves - should they win their group. This means the following group pairings:
  • Group A / Group C and Group E / Group G
  • Group B / Group D and Group F / Group H
• With 3 host nations, they will also be kept on separate corners of the draw - should they win their group, and will be placed in the following groups:
  • Mexico - Group A
  • Canada - Group G
  • USA - Group H

Here's the final results

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Mexico	Argentina	England	Portugal	Spain	France	Canada	USA
Iran	UEFA Playoff	Colombia	Ecuador	Ivory Coast	Netherlands	Scotland	Ghana
Germany	Austria	Curacao	Switzerland	Korea Republic	CONCACAF / AFC Playoff	Belgium	Norway
Tunisia	Japan	Algeria	Uzbekistan	Croatia	Egypt	OFC / CONMEBOL Playoff	Uruguay