Football supporters were left bewildered during the 2026 World Cup draw when Rio Ferdinand explained that Uzbekistan would be placed in Group K – alongside Portugal and Colombia. The nation was selected near the conclusion of the third pot by Aaron Judge during Friday evening’s ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
Despite Group I – consisting of France and Senegal – being the first available group alphabetically that wouldn’t create a conflict and contained only two teams, Ferdinand opted to slot Uzbekistan into Group K instead. Defending the call, the ex- Manchester United centre-back said: “We’ve got factors here, so I’m going to take Uzbekistan and put them into Group K in position three. And we skipped [Group] I because of teams that are yet to be drawn. So we’ll wait for those teams to be drawn in the next pot, so we’re going to have to move on and we’ll wait for them.”
With Norway and Panama being the sole remaining sides, Panama eventually joined Group L with England and Croatia, while Norway was allocated to Group I alongside France and Senegal – as no more than two UEFA nations are permitted in the same group for next summer’s tournament. Although the draw proceeded rapidly to pot four shortly afterwards, supporters remained perplexed online by the decision to match Uzbekistan with Portugal and Colombia.
One user wrote on X: “Does anyone have an explanation why Portugal got Uzbekistan instead of Norway?” Another also queried: “Why can’t Uzbekistan go into a group with Senegal and France?” And a third mused: “Umm, why could Uzbekistan not be drawn in Group I?”
Fortunately, several social media users were on hand to clarify the puzzling situation. One explained: “They needed an available Europe x 2 + Africa group so that the Bolivian/Surinam/Iraq-slot had somewhere to go.”
Meanwhile, another Reddit user posted: “It’s actually quite simple. Before the draw even started, it was known that the winner of the Iraq play-off would be in a group with 2 European teams and 1 African team due to the 1 team per confederation rule. When Uzbekistan was drawn, Group I was the only group remaining that would make this possible.”
According to FIFA’s tournament rules: “FIFA’s general principle, whenever possible, is to ensure that no group has more than one team from the same confederation drawn in it. This is applicable to all confederations except UEFA, which is represented by 16 teams.
“Each group must have at least one, but no more than two UEFA teams drawn into it. Thus, four out of the 12 groups will contain two of the 16 UEFA teams (including the four play-off placeholders).”
Given that, at the time of the draw, Group I was the only feasible group to accommodate two European teams and an African team, as it already included France and Senegal, adding Uzbekistan would have subsequently led to conflicts in the next stage of the draw.