Mark Chapman has slammed FIFA’s 2026 World Cup seeding system ahead of Friday’s draw, claiming football fans want to see big games early in the tournament
Mark Chapman has slammed the 2026 World Cup seeding system as “s***” before Friday’s group stage draw.
He’s also argued that football supporters are keen to see major clashes from the tournament’s opening stages, rather than having to wait until the semi-finals. Speaking on The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Adam Crafton, the Match of the Day host explained: “This is going to be a complicated draw because of FIFA’s decision to expand this tournament and hold it in three different countries.
“On top of that, introducing another seeding system, as opposed to just having pot one, pot two, pot three and pot four, the top four nations in the world are going to be seeded like a Wimbledon draw so that they can’t face each other.”
The Athletic’s Crafton responded: “I think maybe it’s designed to maximise broadcast proposition. In theory, you know, you get the biggest match ups later in the competition. I think there’s the risk is that you get kind of slightly duller earlier games.”
Reinforcing his stance, an unimpressed Chapman then added: “Do you know what? I’ll jump in. It’s s***. It’s a really s*** idea. In ’82, they had Argentina, Brazil and Italy in the same group of three, and they played each other in some of the best games a World Cup has seen. And sometimes you want a big game early.”
The 2026 World Cup draw is slated for Friday, December 5, where all participating nations will discover their groupings for the first-ever 48-team tournament. A total of 12 groups will be formed as teams battle it out for the coveted Jules Rimet Trophy, reports the Mirror.
However, the drawing process has seen some tweaks. The host countries – Canada, Mexico and the United States – have all been placed in Pot 1, along with the top nine teams from the current FIFA rankings.
The remaining three pots have also been determined by the FIFA rankings, with the lowest-ranked qualifying teams occupying Pot 4. Each pot will contribute one team to form the 12 World Cup groups.
FIFA’s rules stipulate that no group can include more than one team from the same confederation, except for UEFA, which must have at least one but not more than two European teams per group. This means that the top four teams in the FIFA rankings – Spain, Argentina, France and England – won’t face each other until the semi-finals, provided they win their respective groups.
While this could make England’s path to the semi-finals seemingly less challenging, it also means that football enthusiasts worldwide might have to wait until the later stages of the tournament to see clashes between the highest-rated teams.
Here are the top nine teams in the current FIFA rankings:
- Spain
- Argentina
- France
- England
- Brazil
- Portugal
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Germany
England have stylishly secured their place in next year’s tournament, winning all eight of their World Cup qualifiers against Albania, Serbia, Latvia and Andorra. Thomas Tuchel’s team also managed to keep eight clean sheets in Group K, providing the Three Lions with a significant boost ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
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