Football fans can watch the draw for next year’s FIFA Men’s World Cup in a live broadcast from Washington DC from 6am (NZT) on Saturday December 6, 2025.
The draw will decide which four-team group will include New Zealand at the 48-team tournament to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The draw will be broadcast live by TVNZ and streamed free and live on FIFA+ (see link below).
Watch Darren Bazeley interview
READ MORE: How All Whites opponents will be decided in FIFA Men’s World Cup draw >>>>
Main photo credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters / unsplash.
The pots
Pot 1
Canada (co-host) #27
Mexico (co-host) #15
United States (co-host) #14
Spain #1
Argentina #2
France #3
England #4
Brazil #5
Portugal #6
Netherlands #7
Belgium #8
Germany #9
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
Pot 3
Norway #29
Panama #30
Egypt #34
Algeria #35
Scotland #36
Paraguay #39
Tunisia #40
Ivory Coast #42
Uzbekistan #50
Qatar #51
Saudi Arabia #60
South Africa #61
Pot 4
Jordan #66
Cabo Verde #68
Ghana #72
Curaçao #82
Haiti #84
New Zealand #86
European Play-off A (TBD)
European Play-off B (TBD)
European Play-off C (TBD)
European Play-off D (TBD)
FIFA Play-off Tournament 1 (TBD)
FIFA Play-off Tournament 2 (TBD)
New Zealand … will be drawn from Pot 4. Photo credit: OFC Media / Phototek.
How the draw will work
The draw will begin with all the teams from Pot 1 being drawn to groups A to L. It will then continue with Ppots 2, 3 and 4, in that order.
For Pot 1, Canada, Mexico and the United States, as the host countries, will be identified by different coloured balls and, when drawn, will be assigned to position A1 for Mexico (green ball), B1 for Canada (red ball) and D1 for the United States (blue ball).
The remaining nine top-ranked teams in Pot 1 will be identified by nine balls of the same colour and automatically allocated to position 1 of the group into which they are drawn.
To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established when developing the match schedule.
For a balanced distribution of the teams, the four highest-ranked teams in the FIFA men’s world ranking, when drawn, will have the following constraints:
The highest-ranked team (Spain) and the second highest-ranked team (Argentina) will be randomly drawn into opposite pathways.
The same principle will apply to the third (France) and fourth (England) highest-ranked teams.
This will ensure that, should they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams will not meet before the final.
In principle, no group will have more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it. This applies to all confederations except UEFA, which is represented by 16 teams.
Each group must have at least one, but no more than two UEFA teams drawn into it.
For the two FIFA Play-Off Tournament placeholders, to comply with FIFA’s general principle to ensure that no group has more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it, the confederation constraint will be applied to all three teams within each pathway of the two FIFA Play-Off Tournament placeholders in pot 4.
The winners and runners-up from the 12 groups, and eight best third-placed teams, will advance to the knockout rounds.
This story was first published on December 5, 2025.