FIFA World Cup 2026 Draw LIVE Updates: World champions Argentina, 2022 finalist France and others find out their fate

FIFA World Cup 2026 Draw live updates: 48 teams find out their group stage opponents tonight. (AP)

FIFA 2026 World Cup Draw Live Updates: With a little over 6 months remaining for the world-wide footballing extravaganza that is the FFA World Cup 2026, 48 teams will know their fate as they find out which group they are drawn in and their opponents of the preliminary stages. This will be the biggest World Cup ever with an unprecedented 48 teams taking part in the tournament. We already know the 42 qualified teams while the six remaining nations will be determined after the play-offs in March.

With 48 teams in the mix, 4 teams will be divided into 12 groups from where the top two teams in each of groups advance to the Round of 32 along with the eight best third-place teams. After the R32, the tournament will follow the familiar pattern of Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and finally, the summit clash.

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FIFA has already said the top four teams in the rankings — Spain, Argentina, France and England — will avoid each other until the semifinals if they finish first in their first-round groups. Meanwhile, there might be a dearth of a traditional Group of Death if Italy do not qualify from the play-offs.

Scroll down to follow live updates from the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group stage draw

The Nobel Academy denied him, much to his wrath. Infantino, his good friend for years, sympathises with him. The US co-hosts the biggest World Cup ever next year. The full portrait emerges. (AP Photo)

FIFA World Cup draw: As Donald Trump-Gianni Infantino bromance deepens, the US president may finally get a peace prize

Like a hymn, Village People’s YMCA will thrum in the concert hall of the Kennedy Centre where the FIFA World Cup draw will take place on Friday evening. Once looked upon as a gay anthem, it’s the ubiquitous soundtrack of the American president Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ rallies. The blind Italian vocalist Andrea Bocelli would render one of his operatic arias; Robbie Williams would croon an old love-sick melody; Heidi Klum would rev up the glam quotient. An audience of two hundred million will hold their breath to learn their team’s fate and fortunes.

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