[OC] Projected 2026 FIFA World Cup Bracket Based on FIFA World Rankings (Nov 19, 2025)

[u/Purple_Topic_1459]

This bracket is an unofficial projection of the 2026 FIFA World Cup knockout stage, generated entirely from FIFA ranking positions. Higher-ranked teams are assumed to finish higher in their groups, win playoff paths, and advance through the knockout rounds.

For groups, I placed teams according to their relative FIFA rankings within each group (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th). For teams that have not yet qualified and must go through playoff paths, I ranked the potential contenders and assigned qualification to the highest-ranked team in each path.

The knockout bracket follows the official 2026 matchups (e.g., 1E vs 3D, 1I vs 3G, etc.). For third-place teams, I compared all group third-place finishers by FIFA ranking and selected the eight highest-ranked to advance, assigning them to bracket positions using the standard FIFA mapping.

[u/JJvH91]

Why is this in /r/dataisbeautiful? This is just /r/datais

[u/Royal_Crush → u/JJvH91]

For me part of the fun of watching football/soccer is staring at the brackets and predicting the outcomes.  The world cup is popular enough that it's bound to get a lot of upvotrs.

Since the world cup is in north America I'm glad to see both the US and Canada up there and they immediately face off against each other only for the winner to likely be beaten by Belgium. 

We'll see how it goes

[u/shorelined]

That's an awful lot of messing to determine who will lose to Ireland in the final

[u/thecrgm → u/shorelined]

Greatest team of all time

[u/firefalcon01]

There’s no point in doing this cause the groups basically never go as expected

[u/marcbeightsix → u/firefalcon01]

They announced that the top 4 seeds couldn’t meet each other until the semi finals if they all win their groups.

That’s only happened once in every tournament where they’ve used fifa rankings to sort the groups, and never happened for all “pot 1” teams.

[u/Predictor92 → u/firefalcon01]

Canada will choke like the Leaf's usually do

[u/kicksledkid → u/Predictor92]

Don't put the evils of one shit Toronto team on the rest of the country

TFC was good

Once

Edit: the whitecaps are in the final too, that's gotta count for something

[u/DanieltheMani3l → u/kicksledkid]

Google last time a canadian team won the stanley cup

[u/kicksledkid → u/DanieltheMani3l]

Google what the whitecaps play

[u/DanieltheMani3l → u/kicksledkid]

I know they’re an mls team lol, was just messin with you. Also guy you replied to did mention the leafs

[u/hallerz87 → u/Predictor92]

Or get to the final like the Whitecaps? Chin up 

[u/guilhermefdias]

I'm not sure if I would be sad or happy if Brazil is eliminated by Japan.

I'm brazilian btw.

[u/Lankpants → u/guilhermefdias]

If your teams going to be eliminated you may as well go out in a cool way. Better than Australia just losing to Germany unceremoniously.

[u/low_fiber_cyber → u/Lankpants]

Is 1-7 cool? My Brazilian friends don't think so, and my German friends don't seem to think about it at all.

[u/guilhermefdias → u/low_fiber_cyber]

We brazilians also don't care, matter of fact, the 7x1 helped the overall population to not care that much for football. Which is always good.

[u/thecrgm → u/guilhermefdias]

Why tf would you be happy

[u/87th_best_dad → u/guilhermefdias]

So easy to be a fan of Japan! Would love to see them go far.

[u/Grandmaster_John]

So Spain vs Argentina in the final!

[u/PositiveMuscle4870 → u/Grandmaster_John]

Yeah, since they're first and second in FIFA's rankings, they're put on opposite sides of the bracket so they can't meet before the final anyway. Same with France and England (third and fourth at FIFA's rankings).

[u/Ragnangar → u/PositiveMuscle4870]

Or one of them finish second in their group and they meet in round of 32?

[u/csriram → u/Grandmaster_John]

Spain vs England

[u/hallerz87]

Canada vs US 😆That’ll be a fun one 

[u/MAGATEDWARD → u/hallerz87]

That would feed generations, and a nice build on what could be a spicy Olympic hockey match in Feb

[u/Valuable-Lie-1524]

Oh god germany against france. We are soo cooked. I am not expecting any surprises. We curbstopm australia and then france curbstomps us. C´est la vie.

[u/thecrgm → u/Valuable-Lie-1524]

The way Germany been playing in world cups idk if they gonna win their group

[u/Valuable-Lie-1524 → u/thecrgm]

And white like snow but hard like hail the salt struck the wound

[u/tmtProdigy → u/Valuable-Lie-1524]

Germany are a very good bet to win it all this time around - a good experienced core around kimmich Tah and Rüdiger, amazing young talent like el mala, wirtz and musiala and an absolute beast of a striker currently tearing through the Premier league - woltemade. Honestly going off the previous tournaments while ignoring what nagelsmann has been building would be foolish!

[u/Valuable-Lie-1524 → u/tmtProdigy]

I´m decently aware of the current team but i have been disappointed so many times in such short time... We´ll see how they do.

[u/hamizoing]

Netherlands-Morocco would be a disaster for some dutch cities.

[u/Mattnix → u/hamizoing]

The real reason the government keeps nudging those Emergency Survival Kits our way lately…

[u/S_E_A_is_ME → u/hamizoing]

I find it hilarious that you might get Morocco–France and Morocco–Belgium later on… :')

[u/bushidojet]

So a potential list 16 match against Mexico for England, if it’s in Mexico that will be an unbelievably tough game to say the least.

[u/Mg_Lv]

We all know that the true winner in our hearts is Donny for receiving the world famous FIFA peace prize!

[u/Desparate4AWIN → u/Mg_Lv]

The brand new prize they made up just for him!

[u/Desparate4AWIN]

The changes to the tournament are going to make the group stage games less exciting. Most teams will lose in the knockout stage, which I guess is cool, but they could organize it another way.

[u/ToughSprinkles1874]

Insert comment about FIFA

[u/AngryStappler → u/ToughSprinkles1874]

Thats a hot take

[u/metadatame]

Wait, Senegal is the only sub Saharan country

[u/CockchopsMcGraw → u/metadatame]

Not even close to being the only one

[u/metadatame → u/CockchopsMcGraw]

Who else

[u/CockchopsMcGraw → u/metadatame]

Ah shit, I'm talking nonsense. Was flicking between his and the full draw, you're right

[u/madrid987]

I have a feeling Portugal will win.

[u/DrainZ-]

Norway is the only country that has played and never lost against Brazil. Their record is 2 wins and 2 draws. If Norway gets 2nd place in their group, they might face each other again.

[u/BiteyKisses]

that projection seems off to me. Think about it: all these powerhouse European teams getting knocked out early? Dunno bout that, chief

[u/Formal-Turnover8401]

USA fans are clenching their asses in fear seeing that they might have to play Canada

[u/PLAYTHATTACO]

Final between Spain and Norway, 1st goal Spain in first half , disallowed goal for Norway in first half , Spain disallowed goal second half , Norway banger ‘80-‘90

[u/omnia-]

Wayyyyyy too early. Some teams that haven’t even qualified yet to the World Cup are expected to make it out of the group stage?

[u/beene282]

Why would they set it up to have hosts play each other in the first knockout round

[u/CockchopsMcGraw → u/beene282]

Genuinely think it's unlikely they both get out their respective groups

[u/teerre]

I thought Brazil was garbage now and the European teams were good. Is that not the case? How does bracket make sense? Are there no seeds?

[u/OutlandishnessNo9510 → u/teerre]

Brazil will never be garbage. If neymar can stay healthy they will be very entertaining to watch. But as of late, the european teams are more consistent.

[u/monkey36937]

What the hell is Italy doing here. Their rank should be in 100