WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – The 2026 World Cup draw will take place at 1700 GMT on Friday and though the 42 nations assured of their slot will have to wait more than an hour to discover their opponents, they will have to wait another 24 to find out where and when they will be playing.
And, in keeping with the theme of keeping people waiting, hundreds of journalists attending the event at Washington’s Kennedy Center were left queuing in the snow for hours as security personnel with dogs conducted exhaustive searches and checks of bags and equipment.
Photographers and TV personnel posted pictures of their expensive items of kit piled in the snow on a driveway as organisers struggled to process people through airport-style bag-check machines.
Assuming it is not delayed, the ceremony will begin with a glitz-rich show dripping in VIPs, with the expected presentation of FIFA’s new peace prize to President Donald Trump vying with live shows by Andrea Bocelli and the Village People for top billing.
Once that is all out of the way, the allocation of groups for the expanded 48-team competition will begin at around 1800GMT.
A newly-introduced seeding system ensures that the current top four in the world – Spain, holders Argentina, 2022 runners-up France and England – cannot meet until the semi-final stage if they win their groups.
The 48 teams – including six still-to-be-decided playoff winners – will be divided into 12 groups of four to produce a mammoth 104-match schedule across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The three host nations are all in Pot One of top seeds, along with the four above, Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
At the other end of the scale, Pot Four includes debutants Cape Verde, Uzbekistan, Jordan and Curacao, which, with a population of 150,000, is by far the smallest nation ever to take part in a World Cup.
Once the groups have been decided, FIFA will get to work trying to optimise venues and kickoff times relating to the various worldwide TV markets.
In many cases that will lead to afternoon kickoffs in high temperatures, with lip-service about player welfare being paramount ringing as true as they did last time the U.S. hosted the tournament in 1994 and had the Pasadena final kicking off at noon in 100-degree-plus (38 degrees Celsius) temperatures.
Venues and kickoff times will be announced in another globally broadcast event on Saturday, though even that is subject to adjustment in March once the six playoff qualification spots have been filled.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Christian Radnedge)
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