The Socceroos have officially qualified for what already looks like the wildest FIFA World Cup of all-time; so who could they face in 2026, and what will it look like?
With the tournament expanding from 32 teams to a whopping 48, and FIFA opting to keep the four-team group format, the first stage of the World Cup finals will be a non-stop football thrill ride.
The tournament kicks off in exactly one year, Thursday June 11 (US time) at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, where one of the three hosts will begin its campaign.
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After a slightly slower opening to the tournament, with four matches in two days (including Canada’s opener in Toronto, and the USA’s opener in Los Angeles), things will get wild with a staggering 68 matches played across 15 days.
In particular there will be six games played on each day between June 24 and June 27, as the group stage wraps up.
In total, there will be more matches purely in the 2026 group stage (72) than in the entire 2022 tournament (64).
FIFA WORLD CUP 2026 SCHEDULE BASICS
Opening match: June 11, Mexico vs TBC, Estadio Azteca
Group stage: June 11 to 27 (48 teams in 12 groups, 3 games per nation for 72 total)
Round of 32: June 28 to July 3 (16 games)
Round of 16: July 4 to 7 (8 games)
Quarter-finals: July 9 to 11 (4 games)
Semi-finals: July 14 and 15, Dallas and Atlanta
Third-place playoff: July 18, Miami
Final: July 19, ‘New York New Jersey’
All dates US time
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The expansion, with an extra 16 teams earning group-stage bids, is spread across the six confederations. Africa (four extra slots) is the big winner, ahead of Asia, Europe and North/Central America (three extra slots, with the latter getting three auto-bids with the host nations USA, Mexico and Canada).
But of course, this will make the groups weaker. Broadly speaking, the fourth team in each group for the 2026 World Cup would not have qualified for the 2022 event, along with another four teams who’ll be the third-highest seed in their group.
As of June 12, we know 13 of the 48 teams who’ll be at the tournament, including two debutants in Jordan and Uzbekistan.
To decide the actual groups, a draw will be held in December 2025, with the nations placed into four 12-team pots primarily based on the November/December FIFA world rankings.
The pots will be tweaked slightly, with the host nations Mexico, Canada and USA in pot one (so the locations of their group matches can be locked in) plus the nine-best teams, then the next 12 best teams in pot two, and the next 12 best teams in pot three. Pot four will include the six lowest-ranked teams, plus the to-be-determined two inter-confederation playoff winners and the four UEFA playoff winners.
2026 WORLD CUP SLOTS
Asia (AFC): 8 + 1 playoff bid (+3 from 2022)
Africa (CAF): 9 + 1 playoff bid (+4)
North/Central America (CONCACAF): 6 (including 3 hosts) + 2 playoff bids (+3)
South America (CONMEBOL): 6 + 1 playoff bid (+2)
Oceania (OFC): 1 + 1 playoff bid (+1)
Europe (UEFA): 16 (+3)
Total nations: 48
Already qualified: Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Canada, Mexico, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, New Zealand
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Broadly speaking, you want to be in as high a pot as possible to avoid the better teams (though the UEFA playoff winners will be dangerous in pot 4). And Australia’s wins over Japan and Saudi Arabia in the final stage of qualifying could prove pivotal here.
Because the USA and Mexico are each ranked highly, the first two pots are effectively the top 23 teams in the FIFA rankings plus Canada.
Therefore if you’re in the top 23 of the rankings, you’re going to be in one of the first two pots – unless some of those top 23 teams fail to qualify (which would mean that number grows). This is unlikely but possible; in 2022, Italy and Sweden were both ranked in the top 20 but missed the tournament.
Australia would also be helped if top European teams are forced into the UEFA playoffs, rather than making it automatically by winning their qualifying groups, because playoff teams are locked into pot four regardless of their rankings.
Either way, the Socceroos need to be targeting the top 23. And on the live FIFA rankings, they’re ranked 24th, having moved up two places over the past week.
A couple of extra wins in friendlies leading into the World Cup, or a couple of top European teams having to win a playoff to advance, could be enough to catapult Australia into pot two – meaning they would have play two lower-ranked teams in their group.
For example, a group of Spain, Uruguay, Australia and Tunisia could instead become Spain, Australia, Panama and Tunisia – a reasonably big boost in the Socceroos’ chances of qualifying for the knockouts (though the third-place team will also qualify from most groups).
But as it stands, Australia will be the top team in pot three. Here is a simulation of what the World Cup groups could therefore look like.
SIMULATED 2026 WORLD CUP GROUPS (Based on FIFA rankings as of June 11)
Pot 1: Mexico (Group A), Canada (Group B), USA (Group D), Argentina, Spain, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia
Pot 2: Italy, Morocco, Germany, Colombia, Uruguay, Japan, Switzerland, Senegal, Iran, Denmark, Austria, South Korea
Pot 3: Australia, Ecuador, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Peru, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Cameroon, Qatar
Pot 4: Mali, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Jamaica, Jordan, New Zealand, Paraguay, South Africa (as two inter-confederation playoff teams), Ukraine, Turkiye, Sweden, Wales (as four UEFA playoff teams)
Group A
Mexico
Denmark
Nigeria
New Zealand
Group B
Canada
Colombia
Tunisia
Turkiye
Group C
Argentina
Austria
Cote d’Ivoire
Ukraine
Group D
USA
Switzerland
Peru
Sweden
Group E
Spain
Uruguay
Panama
Wales
Group F
France
Senegal
Ecuador
Jordan
Group G
England
Morocco
Australia
Jamaica
Group H
Brazil
Italy
Cameroon
Saudi Arabia
Group I
Portugal
Japan
Egypt
Uzbekistan
Group J
Netherlands
Iran
Algeria
Paraguay
Group K
Belgium
South Korea
Costa Rica
Mali
Group L
Croatia
Germany
Qatar
South Africa