FIFA’s World Cup draw is this week. Here’s what to know before, during, and after Friday’s event

The FIFA World Cup is rapidly approaching, but before the world’s premier international tournament hits U.S. soil this summer, FIFA will assign qualifying nations into groups for the tournament during its highly anticipated final draw.

Here’s everything you need to know about Friday’s event.

The World Cup draw, which will determine the groups for the round-robin stage of the tournament, will take place on Friday at noon. The event will be hosted by the Kennedy Center in Washington and broadcast live on Fox. Its coverage of the draw will begin at 11:30 a.m. and conclude at 3 p.m. FIFA’s event, which begins at noon, is expected to last about an hour and a half, with the draw itself accounting for about 45 minutes of that time.

Forty-two national teams, including cohosts Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., have already qualified for the World Cup and will be included in the draw.

Six spots remain available for the World Cup, which will feature 48 teams for the first time in its history. Four of the remaining six qualifying spots will be awarded to the top four teams in the European Federation’s 16-team playoff, which will conclude in March. The other two spots will be awarded to the top two finishers at the FIFA Playoff Tournament, also in March.

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At Friday’s draw, the six qualifiers yet to be determined will be represented by placeholder slips, four for Europe and two for the intercontinental FIFA playoff.

Here’s a full list of the qualified teams by confederation, plus a look at participants in the European playoff and the FIFA Playoff Tournament:

Cohosts: Canada, Mexico, United States

Asian Football Confederation (AFC): Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan

Confederation of African Football (CAF): Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia

Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf): Curaçao, Haiti, Panama

South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL): Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay

Oceania Football Confederation (OFC): New Zealand

Union of European Football Associations (UEFA): Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland

UEFA 16-team playoff (four qualifiers): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia, Poland, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, and Wales

FIFA World Cup 26 Playoff Tournament (two qualifiers): Bolivia (CONMEBOL), Democratic Republic of the Congo (CAF), Iraq (AFC), Jamaica (Concacaf), New Caledonia (OFC), and Suriname (Concacaf)

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Qualified nations will be divided into four pots based on their FIFA World Rankings positions. Pot 1 will contain the nine best-qualified teams in the rankings, as well as the three cohosts. The host nations have already been assigned to groups — Mexico will be in Group A, Canada will be in Group B, and the U.S. will be in Group D. The remaining teams will be assigned to the other nine groups, one team per group.

After all the teams in Pot 1 have been drawn, the draw will move to Pot 2, selecting one team for each of the 12 groups. The process will repeat with Pot 3 and Pot 4, resulting in 12 groups of four teams. During the tournament, the top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout rounds. The top eight third-place finishers in the 12 groups will also advance, completing the Round of 32.

Though the draw determines tournament groups, FIFA is also looking ahead to the knockout rounds. FIFA will structure the knockout bracket so that the top four teams in its rankings — Spain, Argentina, France, and England — will not meet before the tournament semifinal, provided that they each finish first in their respective groups. It is the first time the World Cup will use a tennis-style bracket for knockouts.

Here’s a complete look at the pots that will be used on Friday:

Pot 1: Canada (B1), Mexico (A1), U.S. (D1), Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany

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, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European playoff winner 1, European playoff winner 2, European playoff winner 3, European playoff winner 4, Intercontinental playoff winner 1, Intercontinental playoff winner 2.

The draw should help determine which international sides will play in Philadelphia this summer. FIFA’s tournament schedule shows that Philly will host group stage games for Groups C, I, and L, and two for Group E, alongside a Round of 16 match. Fans will not be able to track which teams are coming to Philly during the draw, as the current tournament schedule does not give specific placeholders for the group stage matchups.

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The World Cup schedule will be updated on Saturday after the draw, with the paired teams assigned to venues along with kickoff times. The updated schedule will include which teams will play group stage matches in Philly from Groups C, E, I, and L, as well as the time for the Round of 16 match on July 4.

Yes. Fans interested in buying tickets for World Cup matches at Lincoln Financial Field can enter ticket lotteries for individual group-stage games via FIFA’s random selection draw.

The lotteries will begin accepting entries on Dec. 11 at 11 a.m. and close at the same time on Jan. 13.

After the random selection draw phase of ticket sales has finished, any remaining inventory will be released on a first-come, first-served basis closer to the beginning of the tournament. Single-match and multimatch hospitality packages are also available through FIFA.

FIFA’s first-come, first-served phase will be the last opportunity for fans to buy tickets directly through FIFA. After that, tickets will be available only through resale on the secondary market.