The final draw for the FIFA World Cup 26™ is fast approaching where the CommBank Socceroos will discover their Group Stage opponents, following the final Men's window of the year recently concluded.
Football fans are eagerly awaiting to see which group the Aussies will be pitted in at the newly-expanded 48-team draw, having secured qualification for the prestigious tournament back in June.
This will be our sixth consecutive appearance at the Finals and seventh overall following our maiden showing in 1974.
The Socceroos are currently ranked 26th in the world and will have a clearer understanding of our pot allocation closer to the draw.
Here are all the important details about the highly anticipated event ahead of next year's Finals.
Date and time
The final draw will take place at Friday, 5 December 2025 at at 12:00 Eastern Time (18:00 CET, 17:00 GMT), which in Australia is in the early hours of Saturday, 6 December 2025 at 4:00am (AEDT).
Venue
The final draw will be hosted at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC.
Where to watch the Final Draw
Expansion to 48 teams from 32
This is the first time the FIFA World Cup has increased its participating teams since 1998 following a jump from 24 to 32 nations. And now in 2026, we will see 48 teams compete to be crowned world champions. The increase to the number of nations has therefore meant each confederation has seen an addition in their quota of nations that qualify.
- Asia (AFC): 8 (+4 compared to 2022)
- Africa (CAF): 9 (+4)
- North, Central America and Caribbean (Concacaf): 6 (+3)
- Europe (UEFA): 16 (+3)
- South America (CONMEBOL): 6 (+2)
- Oceania (OFC): 1 (+1)
Teams qualified
The below 42 nations will be represented in the final draw following their successful qualification:
- Co-hosts: Canada, Mexico, USA
- AFC: Australia, IR Iran, Japan, Jordan, Korea Republic, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan
- CAF: Algeria, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia
- Concacaf: Curaçao, Haiti, Panama
- CONMEBOL: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay
- OFC: New Zealand
- UEFA: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland
The remaining spots
The remaining six slots will be confirmed in March 2026 when the four winners of the UEFA playoffs and the two winners of the inter-confederation playoffs will occur.
Pots and procedures
Further details of the draw, including full draw procedures, will be published soon on FIFA.com.
The 48 eligible teams will be divided into four "pots" based on their FIFA rankings. There will be 12 groups of four, with each containing a country from every pot: 1, 2, 3 and 4.
The three host nations are automatically placed in Pot 1 and pre-drawn into specific groups, while the remaining teams will be assigned a pot according to their FIFA ranking at the time of the draw.
The three host nations, Canada, Mexico and the United States, will be placed in Pot 1 and have been pre-drawn into the following groups as per the match schedule released last year. Mexico in Group A, Canada in Group B and the United States in Group D.
Since the March UEFA and inter-confederation playoff qualifiers will not be decided by the time of the draw, teams from the playoffs will automatically be slotted into Pot 4, irrespective of their FIFA ranking. However, this could change with FIFA yet to confirm these details but will do so soon.
Furthermore, no nation from the same confederation can be drawn into the same group with the exception of UEFA, limited to just two teams.
The top two teams from each group and the eight best third-placed sides will advance to the Round of 32.