{"id":72658,"date":"2025-12-02T08:31:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/72658\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T08:31:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:31:25","slug":"everything-north-texans-should-know-about-2026-world-cup-draw-teams-tickets-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/72658\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything North Texans should know about 2026 World Cup draw: Teams, tickets and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

As 2025 winds down, sports fans are starting to shift focus toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll officially be one step closer to the event this week, as FIFA will hold its World Cup draw at 11 a.m. Friday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.<\/a> The draw will determine each competing team\u2019s path, setting up opponents, host cities and the tournament\u2019s initial schedule.<\/p>\n

For those in need of a reminder, 48 teams will compete in the 2026 World Cup. Those teams will be divided into 12 groups of four on Friday.<\/p>\n

Looking to keep up with the World Cup draw? Here\u2019s a look at what fans should know about the event:<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

How to watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw<\/p>\n

Date: Friday, Dec. 5<\/p>\n

Time: 11:00 a.m. (CT)<\/p>\n

TV: Fox (English); Telemundo (Spanish)<\/p>\n

Streaming: Fubo, FIFA+, FIFA on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

How does the FIFA World Cup draw work?<\/p>\n

The Dallas Morning News\u2019 Abraham Nudelstejer<\/a> broke down the process for the World Cup draw last month. Competing teams will be placed into four pots for the draw based on FIFA rankings and their host status.<\/p>\n

That means the U.S., Mexico and Canada are in Pot 1 with the top nine FIFA-ranked teams. Here\u2019s a closer look at Nudelstejer\u2019s breakdown:<\/p>\n

Pot 1: Hosts (USA, Mexico, Canada) plus top nine FIFA-ranked teams.<\/p>\n

Pots 2, 3: Mid-ranked nations.<\/p>\n

Pot 4: The lowest-ranked teams plus playoff winners.<\/p>\n

Restrictions: No more than two UEFA teams can be in the same group, and no other nation will meet a team from its qualifying confederation during the group stage.<\/p>\n

Seeded teams: These are the teams predetermined to head each of the 12 groups (Pot 1): Argentina, Brazil, France, England, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, United States, Mexico, and Canada.<\/p>\n

Draw procedure: Balls representing teams are drawn from pots to assign them into groups. The suspense lies in which nations will face each other in the opening rounds.<\/p>\n

Which teams are competing in the 2026 FIFA World Cup?<\/p>\n

As of Monday, 42 of 48 teams have secured their spot in the summer tournament.<\/a> The six remaining spots will be decided at an intercontinental tournament playoff and the UEFA playoffs in March 2026.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at the teams that have qualified for the World Cup:<\/p>\n

Co-hosts: Canada, Mexico, USA<\/p>\n

AFC (Asia): Australia, IR Iran, Japan, Jordan, Korea Republic, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan<\/p>\n

CAF (Africa): Algeria, Cabo Verde, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia<\/p>\n

Concacaf (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): Cura\u00e7ao, Haiti, Panama<\/p>\n

CONMEBOL (South America): Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay<\/p>\n

OFC (Oceania): New Zealand<\/p>\n

UEFA (Europe): Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland<\/p>\n

How to buy FIFA World Cup tickets<\/p>\n

FIFA World Cup tickets are already on sale. The safest way to acquire tickets is through the official FIFA website.<\/p>\n

Back in September, FIFA unveiled a multi-step process<\/a> to buy tickets for the event. Ticket options for the event include single-match tickets, single-venue tickets and team-specific tickets to follow a country\u2019s team throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n

In October, FIFA announced that more than 1 million tickets had already been sold.<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more information on the ticket-buying process here.<\/a><\/p>\n

When will FIFA World Cup matches take place at Arlington\u2019s AT&T Stadium?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at dates for World Cup matches at AT&T Stadium:<\/p>\n

Group stage: June 14, June 17, June 22, June 25 and June 27<\/p>\n

Round of 32: June 30, July 3<\/p>\n

Round of 16: July 6<\/p>\n

Semifinal: July 14<\/p>\n

More FIFA World Cup news<\/p>\n

\u2014 Iran boycotting World Cup draw citing visa restrictions for soccer officials<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dallas-Fort Worth included in bid for Women\u2019s World Cup in 2031<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 What North Texans need to know about the 2026 World Cup Draw on Dec. 5<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 FIFA celebrates grand opening of World Cup 2026 volunteer center at Fair Park<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 See which teams have qualified for the 2026 World Cup after latest qualifying matches<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more World Cup coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As 2025 winds down, sports fans are starting to shift focus toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup. We\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,8079,102,104,103,2124,154,3692,29003],"class_list":{"0":"post-72658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-att-stadium","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-news","13":"tag-fc-dallas","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-world-cup","16":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}