Kennedy Center to host 2026 World Cup draw

The draw for the 2026 FIFA men's World Cup will take place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Friday.

He made the announcement with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and U.S. Vice President JD Vance during an event in the Oval Office.

The 2026 event will be hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19 and will be the first World Cup hosted by three nations and also the first that will expand to 48 teams.

Sixteen venues have already been chosen to host games, with 11 in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada.

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The cities officially selected to host World Cup matches in the U.S. are: New York/New Jersey (MetLife Stadium); Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium); Dallas (AT&T Stadium); San Francisco Bay Area (Levi's Stadium); Miami (Hard Rock Stadium); Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium); Seattle (Lumen Field); Houston (NRG Stadium); Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field); Kansas City, Missouri (Arrowhead Stadium); and Boston (Gillette Stadium).

Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center, installing himself as chair and replacing the board of trustees with loyalists. He has also hinted he would like to see the venue renamed the Trump/Kennedy Center.

The draw, which Infantino said will take place at noon ET, will see the 48 qualified teams split into 12 groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group plus the eight best third-placed teams will advance to the knockout stage.

Asked if he might be the one drawing team names to determine who they will play, Trump suggested that might not be a bad idea, and Infantino seemed to agree -- though that part hasn't yet been determined.

As well as the three host nations, 10 teams have already secured their place at the 2026 tournament: Japan, New Zealand, Iran, Argentina, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Australia, Brazil and Ecuador.

Following the announcement, Infantino presented Trump with a ticket to next year's World Cup final, which the FIFA president said was the first ticket available for the upcoming tournament.

Applications for tickets for the 2026 World Cup open Sept. 10. FIFA said that due to anticipated high demand, tickets would be released in phases.

In an unusual move, Infantino also brought the World Cup trophy with him to the Oval Office.

It's a superstition nearly as old as the World Cup itself: Players on national teams around the globe believe that touching the trophy before their team actually wins the tournament on the field can spark bad luck.

Even Infantino noted that the trophy is "for winners only," but then he added to Trump, "And, since you are a winner, of course you can as well."

The president did just that, remarking, "It's pretty heavy."

He later called the trophy "a beautiful piece of gold" and joked about keeping it and displaying it in the Oval Office.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.