The 2026 World Cup is fast approaching, with the draw for the finals scheduled to take place on December 5 in Washington D.C – but such occasions do not always go according to plan.
These days, draws are commonplace in football, with most competitions’ fixtures being drawn out of pots or by an automated computer system.
The World Cup is no different, with the 2026 tournament’s group stage draw set to take place on December 5 at the John F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts in the US capital of Washington D.C.
Among those involved in the draw are co-hosts Canada, Mexico and the USA, as well as previous competition winners England, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, just to name a few of the 42 teams who have booked their spots.
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Meanwhile, other hopefuls - including Wales, Italy, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland - will still have to compete in a play-off, before booking their flights to North America.
The UEFA draw is set to take place on November 20 and, as ever, will likely run smoothly. But the same can’t be said for the live World Cup draw in 1982.
Ahead of the Spain tournament, FIFA expanded the format of the World Cup from 16 to 24 teams.
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The global football governing body also ditched the usual name-in-a-hat format for the draw and instead replaced it with cages containing little footballs, each containing a qualifier.
The cages were supposed to release the balls to Spanish schoolboys before they handed them to FIFA officials sitting at a table, but things quickly went wrong.
The mechanical cages failed to open before an official then struggled to unscrew a ball containing the name of a qualifier.
Scotland were drawn and placed in Argentina’s group before FIFA boss Sepp Blatter realised this was an error, before a redraw was called with the ball placed back in the cage.
Blatter then admitted a further error when Belgium were drawn in Italy’s group and instead placed in Argentina’s group. The South American nation could not face England due to the Falklands War. This made things more confusing as Belgium faced Argentina despite having complained about the seeding.
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Following the second draw, Scotland were put into group six alongside Brazil. Once more, an error occurred as cage organisers were not informed that the South American sides was supposed to be kept apart in the group stage.
Chile and Peru were supposed to be left out of pot three so they would avoid Brazil and Argentina, but in error, they were included.
One schoolboy even caught the brunt of a telling off from a FIFA member as the audience appeared confused while some of the balls split open revealing the names of the nations inside.
Italy wound up winning the 1982 tournament, beating West Germany 3-1 in the Madrid final.
Luke Davies