Draw sets stage for expanded 48-team tournament; Messi’s Argentina, European champions Spain, and favorites France and England kept apart until possible semifinal clashes.
The road to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is now set after Saturday’s full schedule announcement, following a star-studded draw in Washington that mapped out the group stage for the first 48-team edition of football’s premier event.
Reigning champions Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, will begin their title defense against Algeria in Kansas City on June 16 in Group J, before further matches against Austria and Jordan in Dallas.
European champions Spain face a unique start to their campaign, playing their first two Group H matches—against debutants Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia—inside Atlanta’s covered, air-conditioned stadium. Their group stage concludes against Uruguay in Guadalajara, Mexico.
England’s quest for a first World Cup since 1966 opens against Croatia in Dallas on June 17. Gareth Southgate’s side then meets Ghana in Boston and Panama at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. A group win would send them to Atlanta for a July 1 knockout match.
France, the 2018 winners and 2022 runners-up, will contest all three Group I fixtures in the northeastern U.S., facing Senegal, an intercontinental playoff winner, and Norway.
In a nod to history, Brazil—who last won the World Cup on U.S. soil in 1994—open Group C against Morocco at MetLife Stadium. Carlo Ancelotti’s squad then meets Haiti in Philadelphia and Scotland in Miami.
FIFA’s new draw structure ensured the four highest-ranked nations—Spain, Argentina, France, and England—cannot meet until the semifinals, should each win their group. This sets up potential blockbuster knockout ties, including a possible quarterfinal between Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.
The expanded tournament, hosted across 16 venues in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada from June 11 to July 19, kicks off with Mexico versus South Africa at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca—a repeat of the 2010 World Cup opener.
“You cannot get carried away with building your way with who you are going to meet,” noted Germany coach Thomas Tuchel after the draw. “You just focus on the group.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino hailed the scale of the event: “This is like 104 Super Bowls in one month—this is the magnitude of what we are organizing.”
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