KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. He is a former Sporting Kansas City beat writer and also supports Nottingham Forest of the English Premier League. Share your story idea with Tod.
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So, you’re excited that FIFA World Cup 26 is coming to Kansas City with six games at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium — which will simply be known as Kansas City Stadium next summer, owing to the vagaries FIFA marketing rights and contract law — but you’re confused by the hubbub regarding the Final Draw on Friday?
Let me take a crack at explaining the fuss.
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First, know that there will be pomp, circumstance, unnecessary homage, and an endless succession of celebrities — well, quasi-celebrities to the mostly insulated folks in the U.S. — during the *gulp* three-hour World Cup Final Draw show.
It’s best to think of the World Cup draw as soccer’s version of March Madness Selection Show, when the 68-team field for the NCAA basketball championship is revealed.
Only, in this case, the world's most-watched sports tournament starts with round-robin group play before the single-elimination tournament is set.
LET’S SET THE STAGE
Next summer’s World Cup, which the U.S. is hosting with Mexico and Canada, marks the first time the field has expanded to 48 teams.
It was roughly 16 teams most of the time from its founding in 1930 until growing to 24 teams in 1982. The World Cup last expanded in 1998 to the 32-team format, which had been used every four years since, but now 32 teams will make the knockout stage — double the number in any previous World Cup.
For some perspective, each World Cup from 1998 in France through 2022 in Qatar, featured 64 games — 48 during the group stage, which is set by the draw, and 16 during the knockout stage, including the third-place game between the semifinal losers.
When the expanded World Cup arrives in a little more than six months, it will feature 104 games. There will be 72 in the group stage alone before the 32 knockout games.
Unbelievably, there’s already talk of expanding the 2030 tourney again.
BACK TO THE DRAW
So far, only 42 of the 48 teams have officially qualified. The remaining six teams — four from Europe and two from the rest of the world’s confederations — will be determined by a series of playoffs in March.
The 48 teams will get divided into 12 groups of four for the round-robin group stage, when each team in the group will square off with the other three teams.
A win earns three points and a draw is worth one point. The team with the most points wins the group and, in the event of a tie, goal differential — the total number of goals scored minus the total number of goals allowed — becomes important to separate the teams.
The top finishers in each group automatically go to the knockout round along with the eight best third-place finishers.
To create a balanced field, the FIFA World Men’s Ranking divvies the field into four pots. A team from each of the four pots will be drawn into each of the 12 groups.
FIFA has already pre-assigned the three host countries to groups. Mexico, which hosts the opening game of next summer’s World Cup, will be in Group A, Canada is in Group B and the U.S. Men’s National Team headlines Group D.
The three host countries were placed in Pot 1 along with the top nine teams in the FIFA rankings — a group that includes Spain, reigning champions Argentina, France, England and Brazil.
If you picked up on the fact that, by giving the host teams Pot 1 priority access, FIFA has ensured they won’t face any of the world’s elite footballing nations — a group rounded out by Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany — give yourself a gold star.
Still relying on FIFA’s rankings, the next 12 teams — from No. 10 Croatia to No. 26 Australia — were placed in Pot 2 with a further 12 teams to have already qualified — from No. 29 Norway to No. 61 South Africa — comprising Pot 3.
The lowest six ranked teams — including first-time qualifiers Jordan (No. 66), Cabo Verde (No. 68) and Curacao (No. 82) — and the six as-yet-undecided playoff qualifiers make up Pot 4.
ANY SPECIAL RULES ABOUT THE DRAW
Yes, there’s a complicated hodgepodge of them, but the most crucial one is this — two teams from the same confederation can’t be drawn into the same group. The lone exception is Europe, which has 16 qualifying spots from its confederation.
There will be four groups with two European, or UEFA, teams, but, as an example, the rule prohibits the three South America, or CONMEBOL, teams — Colombia, Uruguay and Ecuador — from being drawn into the same group as CONMEBOL’s Pot 1 powerhouses, Argentina and Brazil.
If the lottery ball pops up with such a conflict, FIFA will slide the team to the next available spot that does not conflict with the draw rules.
It gets a little tricky with the non-European playoff teams, since they come from several different confederations, but it’s largely the same concept that the NCAA uses to separate Big 12 or SEC teams in the first few rounds of March Madness.
“SO, WE’LL KNOW WHO’S COMING TO KC AFTER THE DRAW?”
Not quite — but we’ll have a much better idea.
The draw will determine which teams are in which groups and, from there, FIFA will determine the match dates, times and locations keeping in mind the global nature of the event. Kickoff times between — say, South Korea and Scotland, should they be drawn into the same group — get tricky with the time difference.
Those details are set to be revealed at 11 a.m. on Saturday, or roughly 24 hours after the Final Draw.
Kansas City soccer fans will want to pay particular attention to Group J, because Arrowhead will host two of its group-stage games.
Three of the four teams in Group J will play in Kansas City, including one team that will play here twice during an opening-round game June 16 and the final group-stage round on June 27.
In between, Kansas City will host group-stage clashes for teams from Group E (June 20) and Group F (June 25).
When the tournament transitions to the knockout rounds, Kansas City will host games.
The Group K winner will battle a third-place team — from among Group D/E/I/J/L — on July 3.
The World Cup’s run in Kansas City ends with a quarterfinal on July 11. There’s no way to tell who will be in town for that match, but it almost certainly will be a clash of heavyweights in king-making round, if World Cup history is a guide.
AM I MISSING ANYTHING ELSE?
Yeah, we haven't even talked about base camps yet.
But a few weeks before the World Cup begins, foreign national teams will make their way to the U.S., where they will train together and get acclimated to North American weather among other things.
The Kansas City region has three sites — Sporting Kansas City's Compass Minerals National Performance Center, KC Current's University of Health System Training Center, and the University of Kansas' Rock Chalk Park — in consideration for team base camps.
It's a near certainty that a well-known national team selects Sporting KC's facility, which has drawn interest from England among other world powers, while the addition of a new stadium and natural-grass field at 1 Teal Rising Way bolsters the chances for the Current's facility.
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Rock Chalk Park is the longest shot of the trio, but given Lawrence's central location — making for relatively short flights from coast to coast — local World Cup organizers aer optimistic the Jayhawks' facility will get utilized as well. My guess is there's at least a 60% chance they're right.
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