Trump says Kennedy Center to host 2026 World Cup draw
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday that the 2026 men’s World Cup draw will take place Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center, a performing arts venue in Washington, D.C.
Trump made the announcement flanked by FIFA president Gianni Infantino and U.S. Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office, News.Az reports, citing The New York Times.
The draw is the event at which all qualified teams learn their three group-stage opponents.
The Athletic reported in April that Las Vegas appeared the frontrunner to host the draw, but Washington, D.C. remained in contention if it made it easier for Trump to participate extensively.
Trump will almost certainly have a role in the event, which is both procedural and a spectacle. It typically includes musical performances and speeches before the teams are drawn, via sealed orbs, from pots into their World Cup groups.
Last time the men’s World Cup took place in the U.S., 1994, the draw took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with Dick Clark hosting the event which included performances from Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Rod Stewart.
The draw determines the exact split of the 48 qualified nations into 12 groups of four for the first stage of the World Cup.
Before the draw, the 48 teams will be allocated evenly into four ‘pots’, according to the most up-to-date FIFA rankings. Pot 1 will contain the U.S., Canada and Mexico, who qualify for the tournament automatically as host nations, and the next highest-ranked nine teams. That continues across Pot 2 and Pot 3, with Pot 4 containing the 12 lowest-ranked teams. Each group will contain one country from each pot.
It has already been confirmed that the first game of the 2026 World Cup will take place at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on June 11, meaning Mexico has been automatically placed in Group A. Canada will play the second match and has been placed in Group B, while the U.S. will play the third match and is in Group D. Those games will be the only ones on June 12.
At the time of the draw, 42 of the 48 teams competing at the World Cup will be known. Four qualifiers from Europe and two from the rest of the world will be determined via a set of playoffs in March 2026, which will take place in the host nations. In previous years, placeholders have been used in Pot 4 to represent spots which will be decided by a playoff yet to take place.
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