Fifa World Cup draw in Vegas on Dec 5: reports

Straits Times

6 days ago

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The 2026 Fifa World Cup draw is set to take place on Dec 5.
LOS ANGELES – Las Vegas will play host to the 2026 World Cup draw on Dec 5, according to multiple reports on July 30.
ESPN and TUDN'Mexico said that the desert city of Vegas had been picked for the draw of the expanded 48-team global football event, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
In all, 12 groups of four nations will be drawn. Mexico (Group A), Canada (Group B) and the United States (Group D) have already been selected for their groups.
When the United States played host to the 1994 World Cup, the draw ceremony was also conducted in Las Vegas. Vegas was reportedly selected over cities in Canada and Mexico this time.
However, Fifa officials have not officially confirmed the date or site.
Pachuca executive Pedro Cedillo, who is campaigning for Mexico to be the site for World Cup training camps, recently told ESPN he expected the draw to take place in Vegas.
'Dec 5, if I'm not mistaken, is precisely the day the draw takes place, or at the beginning of December,' he said. 'I understand it will be in Las Vegas.'
ESPN's original report said that The Sphere, a 17,500-seat venue which opened in 2023, was seen as the front runner for the draw site.
But Sphere sources confirmed to AFP that the World Cup draw would not take place there, and ESPN later reported that Sphere sources told the sports network it would not be held there.
In 1994, the draw was staged in Las Vegas even though it was not a host city for any matches, a situation that is also the case for next year's event.
Reuters said that Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium was rejected as a host venue. Eleven United States cities/venues were selected, along with three in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey) and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver).
The US sites are divided into three regions.
New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami and Atlanta are a part of the Eastern region, Kansas City, Dallas and Houston comprise a part of the Central Region, while Los Angeles, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area make up three of the four cities in the Western Region.
Only 13 teams, including the hosts USA, Mexico and Canada, have qualified for the World Cup so far. The rest are Japan, New Zealand, Iran, Argentina, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Australia, Brazil and Ecuador.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jerset, will host the final match on July 19, 2026.
In other news, Fifa last weekend inaugurated a regional office in Morocco – the first in North Africa and fifth in the continent – as the kingdom ramps up preparations for the 2030 World Cup which it will host jointly with Spain and Portugal.
'This is a day that will be written in golden letters in the magnificent history of Fifa, African football, Moroccan football, and world football,' said Fifa president Gianni Infantino at the inauguration ceremony.
The inauguration, also attended by the head of the African Football Confederation, Patrice Motsepe, took place before the 2025 Women's Africa Cup of Nations final in Rabat, the capital where Morocco faced Nigeria. The Nigerians won 3-2.
Morocco will be the second African nation to host the World Cup in 2030, following South Africa's edition in 2010. This follows five unsuccessful bids by the kingdom.
Fifa's other African offices are located in Senegal, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and South Africa. AFP, REUTERS