The new format of the 2026 World Cup » How the top teams are protected and what this means for Romania

FIFA published the value groups and introduced a new and decisive element: dividing the table into two parallel “paths”.

Two routes to the semi-finals » How the new system works

The four teams with the highest FIFA scores are:

• Spain

• Argentine

• France

• England

They will be distributed not only in different groups, but also on different sides of the knockout table.

Spain and Argentina cannot meet before the final, just as France and England cannot meet before the last act.

This system was specially designed to prevent situations where two super-favorites were eliminated as early as the eighths or quarters.

With 12 groups of 4 teams each, the 2026 World Cup will be the first edition with 48 teams, instead of 32, thus becoming the most complex edition of the competition.

The domino effect: all competition is influenced

The rule does not concern only the greats, but affects all 48 participants.

An important detail is that if a national team ends up on “Spain's side”, they know from the start that they will only meet Argentina in the final. Similarly, if they fall on 'England's half', they won't run into France until the end of the tournament.

Valuable urns for the raffle

With Romania in pot 4, the “tricolors” could find themselves in a group with a world giant (from pot 1), a top national team (from pot 2) and a strong or awkward team (from pot 3).

Urn 1:

• Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium + the three hosts: Mexico, Canada, USA

Urn 2:

• Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia

Urn 3:

• Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa

Urn 4:

• Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Play-off A, European Play-off B, European Play-off C (possibly Romania), European Play-off D, FIFA 1 Play-off, FIFA 2 Play-off

Turkey, the first obstacle to the World Cup

Romania goes to Istanbul for the semi-final of the pool. The Turks finished the preliminary group in second place, behind Spain, and are coming off a 2-2 draw against the Iberians. Hakan Calhanoglu and Arda Guler are the leaders of Vincenzo Montella's (51) team.

The play-off final will also be played away, either in Slovakia or in Kosovo.

Following a possible qualification, Romania cannot avoid the big forces and will be guaranteed at least one strong opponent, possibly two, depending on the geographical distribution, being part of the value urn 4.