#2026-world-cup

#2026-world-cup

Not yet, maybe a month before it starts,

Donald Trump's heroic victory over a field of one to claim the inaugural Fifa peace prize, on-stage banter so dead it was already fossilized, Gianni Infantino doing crowd work, and Wayne Gretzky struggling through the pronunciation of Macedonia and Curacao in the draw's linguistic group of death: even with the benefit of a few days' distance it's impossible to overstate how impressively bad the draw for the 2026 World Cup, held last Friday at the Trump-purged Kennedy Center in Washington DC, was.

It's not a super easy group, but a manageable one in which we want to prevail,

The co-host should expect to stick around at its own party until at least the round of 32 after being grouped with Paraguay, Australia and the winner of a European playoff between Turkey, Slovakia, Kosovo and Romania in Friday's draw, attended by President Donald Trump in Washington. U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino will take nothing for granted but with none of those nations ranked in the top 20 by FIFA it would be a major disappointment if his team failed to advance

But federation spokesman Amir-Mahdi Alavi told YJC.ir, a news agency affiliated with Iran's state TV, that Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei would attend the event together with one or two staff members to ensure Iran's seat is not left vacant. Alavi said that Ghalenoei's attendance was purely technical and did not amount to walking back the federation's protest. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration announced in June a travel ban on citizens from 12 countries including Iran.

I'm not the only one. Most of us who have played in a World Cup have the butterflies in their stomach, a feeling that is difficult to explain, but I'm more excited about this one than the previous one. Winning individual titles or titles with my club is like the icing on the cake, but the real highlight of my entire career has always been playing for the Argentina national team.

Although Ronaldo was handed a three-game ban for his red card in World Cup qualifying game after he elbowed a Republic of Ireland opponent, the Al Nassr star has already served the mandatory one-game ban. He sat out when Portugal played their final qualifying game last week -- a 9-1 win over Armenia that sealed their place at the World Cup beginning in June in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Schloessman has been preparing for that big deal for most of the last eight years. Together with the local host committee and civic leaders, she helped secure eight games for SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, set up fanfests throughout the region, organized public transportation, found training centers for visiting teams and worked to establish a legacy program that will ensure the tournament's influence continues well beyond the final match.

Friday, December 5 sees the 2026 World Cup draw take place in Washington D.C. Fans of the qualified nations, and even those of play-off hopefuls, will then be able to start plotting their routes to a possible coronation at MetLife Stadium next July. Sixteen venues in the United States, Canada and Mexico will play host to the biggest-ever edition of the tournament, with the number of teams increasing from 32 to 48 and the tally of games upped from 64 to 104.