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Sports legends from extracurricular of soccer, including football’s Tom Brady, basketball’s Shaquille O’Neal, hockey’s Wayne Gretzky and existent All-Star shot subordinate Aaron Judge, volition assistance with the World Cup gully connected Friday (December 5, 2025) successful Washington, D.C.
FIFA announced connected Wednesday (December 3, 2025) the lineup of existent and erstwhile sports stars arsenic good arsenic entertainers successful the lawsuit astatine the Kennedy Center. The amusement volition uncover the group-stage matchups for the first-ever 48-team World Cup.
The World Cup, expanded from 32 teams, is being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Matches volition beryllium played astatine 16 venues, including 3 successful Mexico and 2 successful Canada.
The gully volition benignant the teams into 12 groups of four. The apical 2 teams from each radical and the 8 champion third-place teams volition beforehand to the knockout stage.
With 42 teams already qualified, 22 others volition beryllium competing successful playoffs for the last six berths successful the coming months.
English Premier League Hall of Fame subordinate Rio Ferdinand, a erstwhile Manchester United skipper with 81 England caps, volition behaviour the draw. The co-conductor is broadcaster Samantha Johnson.
The 4 sports legends volition service arsenic assistants, each assigned 1 cookware and picking the names of teams assigned to a group, from Group A to L.
“Soccer has a unsocial powerfulness to unite radical from each implicit the satellite and make a affirmative impact, and I cannot hold to spot this happening successful North America adjacent twelvemonth and beyond, erstwhile we big the biggest-ever FIFA World Cup,” Gretzky, a four-time Stanley Cup champion and record-setting NHL player, said successful a FIFA quality release. “I’m thrilled to beryllium portion of the gully that volition determine the destiny of the participating teams — and disturbance emotions crossed the world. This volition beryllium an unforgettable infinitesimal for maine personally.”
Brady, who won 7 Super Bowls earlier helium retired, is simply a portion proprietor of the English Championship nine Birmingham City.
“Being portion of the last gully for the FIFA World Cup is an unthinkable honour — it’s the benignant of planetary signifier each jock dreams of,” Brady said successful the quality release. “I’m excited to assistance acceptable the way for a tourney that brings the satellite unneurotic similar thing else.”
Eli Manning, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants, is the reddish carpet big for Friday’s (December 5, 2025) event.
