On Friday the 2026 World Cup group stage draw took place in the Kennedy Centre, in Washington D.C. The draw was conducted in the eccentric and unnerving manner we have become accustomed to under FIFA President, Gianni Infantino.
It featured appearances from the likes of Kevin Hart, Rio Ferdinand and The Village People, who performed U.S President Donald Trump’s adopted anthem, Y.M.C.A. President Trump received the first annual FIFA Peace Prize, and was in attendance alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. We will have to see if this does in fact become an “annual award”, or if it was just created to appease President Trump and keep him onside for the World Cup.
Infantino has become notorious for his eccentric and awkward stage presence, such as his bizarre speech before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar where he tried to show how inclusive FIFA was by telling us that “…Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel, a migrant worker…” This draw was no different and took over an hour of show and preamble, before any teams had been selected or matches scheduled.
When the draw did finally begin, Ireland fans did have long to wait with the boys in green being drawn in Group A alongside Mexico, South Korea and South Africa. Should Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side progress through their play off pathway next March this would be a very favourable group considering Ireland were fourth seeds coming into the draw.
Mexico, despite being world cup regulars, having qualified 17 times, and having a home crowd behind them, were arguably one of the best options from pot one, a pot that included heavy weights such as Argentina, Brazil and France. They did win the Gold Cup in July beating the U.S. in the final, however, they have not won a game since and don’t boast any world class players. Premier league fans will be familiar with Fulham’s Raul Jiminez and former West Ham midfielder Edson Álvarez, however Jiminez has only scored twice in 13 league games this season and Álvarez now plies his trade in Turkey with Fenerbahçe.
South Korea has on paper, a more star-studded squad than Mexico, with Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-jae, PSG’s Lee Kang-in and of course the country’s talismanic Son Heung-min, formerly of Tottenham Hotspurs and now of LA F.C. in the MLS. Son is ageing however, now 33, this is likely to be his last World Cup. They are currently 22nd in FIFA’s world ranking, 37 places higher than Ireland, but they are beatable and have only progressed from the group stage three times in their history.
South Africa is the most unknown quantity in the group and potentially the weakest having not qualified for a World Cup since the hosted it in 2010. They are currently ranked 61st two places below Ireland in the world rankings and have very few players who would be household names here in Ireland. Most of their squad is made up of players playing in South Africa with their most well-known player probably being goalkeeper Ronwen Williams who was nominated for the Lev Yashin award in 2024. They have never made it past the group stages at the World Cup but did finish third at the African Cup of Nations in 2024 and it will be interesting to see how they get on at next month’s 2026 edition of the tournament.
All things considered it’s a group Ireland can be confident they can progress from, having avoided any top ten ranked team. Should Heimir’s men beat the Czech Republic and either Denmark or North Macedonia in March then there will be plenty of optimism that the boys in green can make it to the knockout stages and who knows what will happen from there. After all few would have predicted we would have even be in the World Cup draw after that dismal defeat in Yerevan just a few months ago.
