Argentina, Spain and France Will Not Meet Before Semifinals

Europe champion Spain, world champion Argentina, and consecutive World Cup finalist France have been placed in separate paths in the group stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This ensures that even if they advance from the groups, they will not face each other before the semifinals or final.

FIFA has confirmed that the top four ranked teams—Spain, Argentina, France, and England—will be distributed across four different paths so that they cannot meet in the knockout rounds until at least the semifinals.

Three years ago in Qatar, Argentina defeated France in a tiebreaker to become world champions. Even if both teams reach the final again, they will only meet in the semifinal or later.

After determining the groups from pot one, teams from other pots will be drawn sequentially. No more than one team from the same confederation will be placed in the same group, except for UEFA, which has 16 teams in total. This allows up to two UEFA teams per group, ensuring at least four groups contain two European teams.

Each of the 48 participating teams will have its name folded and placed into balls according to their pot. Another set of balls will indicate the group positions 1–4. The draw begins with pot one, with each ball randomly selected and assigned sequentially to the top position in each group. As the three host nations already know their groups, the remaining nine teams will be placed in groups C, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, and L.

After pot one, the same procedure will be followed with pots two, three, and four. Teams drawn from the first pot will occupy the top slot in each group, while the remaining positions will be assigned randomly from the other pots.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup opens in the United States next June. The draw tonight in Washington, D.C., at the John F. Kennedy Center, presided over by U.S. President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, will reveal the groupings and hint at how each team’s World Cup journey could unfold. The ceremony begins at 12 PM local time, 11 PM Bangladesh time. FIFA has announced that the match schedule will be published the following day. The draw will be broadcast live on FIFA’s official website and YouTube channel.

Khaborwala/SS