Socceroos placed in second pot for FIFA Men's World Cup draw in United States
Australia will be in Pot 2 during the draw for the FIFA Men's World Cup. (AAP: Mick Tsikas)
In short:
Australia will be in Pot 2 for the draw for next year's FIFA Men's World Cup.
The draw will be held in Washington DC on December 6 (AEDT), with one nation from each of the four pots forming a group in the tournament.
What's next?
Next week's draw will set the match schedule by placing teams in 12 round-robin groups of four nations each.
The Socceroos, by pot luck, have avoided some of the sport's strongest nations for the 2026 World Cup pool stage.
But the path of Tony Popovic's side, number 26 on the latest FIFA rankings, could still be treacherous ahead of the December 6 (AEDT) draw for football's showpiece tournament.
The Socceroos have been placed in Pot 2, meaning they will not face two-time champions Uruguay, 2018 finalists Croatia, Colombia, Switzerland, or Austria in the opening round.
They will also avoid early match-ups with great Asian rivals and fellow Pot 2 members Japan, South Korea and Iran.
Australian fans took some solace from this, bypassing a batch of dangerous opponents.
But that outlook depends on a glass half-full or glass half-empty view for the Socceroos, with their possible groups ranging from England, Scotland and New Zealand to Spain, Norway and maybe Italy.
The draw ceremony for the first 48-team World Cup will be held at Washington DC's Kennedy Center, in the presence of US President Donald Trump.
During the draw ceremony, 12 groups will be decided by one country being picked from each of the four pots announced.
The Socceroos met France and Denmark at both the 2022 and 2018 group stages. The only other nations encountered twice at the cup finals are Chile and Germany.
The draw will reward the four highest-ranked nations — Spain, Argentina, France and England — which will be placed in separate sections of a new tennis-style seeded tournament bracket.
The top four in the latest men's rankings will, if they top their respective groups, avoid each other until the semifinals of the tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
That means defending champions Argentina, with Lionel Messi, and top-ranked European champions Spain, with Lamine Yamal, cannot meet until the final at MetLife Stadium near New York — if they win their groups.
"To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established," FIFA said in a statement on Tuesday, seeking to reward teams whose consistently good results have raised their world ranking.
At previous World Cups, the path for teams into and through the knockout phase was decided by which group they were drawn into.
Forty-two teams have qualified, with the remaining six decided in March, featuring European and global play-offs.
Next week's draw will set the match schedule by placing teams in 12 round-robin groups of four nations each.
2026 FIFA Men's World Cup Pots
Pot 1: Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, United States, Mexico, Canada
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, European play-off winner 1, European play-off winner 2, European play-off winner 3, European play-off winner 4, Intercontinental play-off winner 1, Intercontinental play-off winner 2.
AAP