World Cup 2026

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Last World Cup for Messi and Ronaldo. 

First time 48 teams. 

Debuts for Cape Verde, Curacao, Uzbekistan and Jordan. 

[Fulham Broadway 17,486]

''Staged just a mile from the White House, Friday's World Cup draw will have a distinctly political feel.

The glittering ceremony will take place at the Kennedy Center, the famous Washington arts venue now chaired by US President Donald Trump after he overhauled its board this year.

Proceedings seem to have been planned with the US president very much in mind.

Seventies group Village People have been booked to play YMCA, a Trump favourite that is regularly heard at his campaign rallies. And, in a break with tradition, the draw ceremony will feature the awarding of a new Fifa Peace Prize, with Trump widely expected to be the recipient.

Such gestures will only underline the alliance forged between the US president and Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino, who announced the award last month after claiming that Trump deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the Israel-Gaza ceasefire, and enthusiastically praising his policies.

Such moves are a threat to Fifa's commitment to political neutrality, one enshrined in its statutes, and risk turning the draw - and the tournament itself - into propaganda tools.

They believe Infantino and Trump are effectively too close for comfort, and that it sends a message that world football's governing body is aligning with the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement, and endorsing what many feel is a divisive administration. Is it wise, they ask, that Fifa is seen to associate so closely with a man who only this week made disparaging comments about Somalis, describing them as "garbage"?