The Draw Is In: Twelve Groups, Twelve Storylines
The Kennedy Center ceremony in December set the bracket. Group I – France, Senegal, Norway, Iraq – already looks like the heaviest of the dozen.
W hen the final ball came out of the final pot at the Kennedy Center last December, FIFA finally delivered the bracket the world had been waiting for since the United bid was confirmed back in 2018. Forty-eight teams. Twelve groups. A new Round of 32 grafted onto the front of the knockout bracket. And, for once, a draw that handed the storyline writers a gift.
Group I lands France with Senegal and Norway
Group I is the obvious headline. France – the third-ranked team in the world, semi-finalists at the last two tournaments – paired with Senegal, Norway, and Iraq. Senegal arrived in North America with the strongest CAF squad on paper; Norway arrived with Erling Haaland having scored sixteen goals in qualifying; Iraq arrived having played twenty-one matches over twenty-eight months just to get here. None of those four can afford a slow start.
Group H sets up a strange bracket path
Group H is the quieter monster. Spain are the highest-ranked team in the tournament. Uruguay, drawn from Pot 3 by virtue of where they sat on the November 2025 ranking, are a former champion playing in their fifteenth World Cup. Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde – the latter making their tournament debut – fill out the four. The bracket pathway means the winner here avoids Argentina until a possible final, which only adds to the strangeness of how this group looks on paper.
The three hosts catch favourable draws
And then there are the hosts. Mexico landed in Group A with South Africa, South Korea, and Czechia – the kind of draw that lets a host nation breathe. Canada drew Bosnia & Herzegovina, Qatar, and Switzerland in Group B, with all three group matches on home soil split between Toronto and Vancouver. The United States, in Group D, face Paraguay, Australia, and Türkiye – a passable group made tougher by Türkiye’s late charge through the European playoffs.
Twelve groups, twelve storylines. The opening match in Mexico City on June 11 will be the first time most fans see them play out.