Five former stars of the global game \u2013 Ariane Hingst, Fernando Llorente, Gianluca Zambrotta, Rachel Yankey and Robert Pires \u2013 have been announced as the draw assistants for the upcoming UEFA Preliminary Draw for the FIFA World Cup 26\u2122.<\/p>\n
The event will take place at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland, at 12:00 CET on Friday, 13 December, with the UEFA-affiliated member associations set to discover their path to the groundbreaking tournament to be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n
Four of the five assistants \u2013 Hingst, Llorente, Pires and Zambrotta \u2013 have tasted glory in the FIFA World Cup\u2122\/FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup\u2122. The quartet will be joined by former England international Yankey, who is one of the most decorated players in the women\u2019s game and was the Lionesses\u2019 record appearance maker with 129 caps when she made her last national-team outing in 2013.<\/p>\n
The draw will be presented by sports broadcaster Semra Hunter and conducted by Chief Tournament Officer \u2013 FIFA World Cup 26, Manolo Zubiria.<\/p>\n
Draw assistants
\nAriane Hingst
\nHingst enjoyed a trophy-laden international career with Germany, during which she won the 2003 and 2007 editions of the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup \u2013 making the All-Star Squad in the latter instalment \u2013 and lifted the UEFA European Women\u2019s Championship on four occasions. The former defender\/defensive midfielder retired from the international game in 2011 as Germany\u2019s third-most capped player (173 appearances).<\/p>\n
Fernando Llorente
\nLlorente was a member of the Spain squad that triumphed at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa\u2122, he won a bronze medal at the 2009 edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup and claimed the Silver Shoe at the FIFA World Youth Championship Netherlands 2005 courtesy of his five-goal haul. A talented target man, Llorente won domestic titles in Spain and Italy, as well as helping Tottenham to the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League final.<\/p>\n
Gianluca Zambrotta
\nKnown both for his defensive and attacking prowess, Zambrotta\u2019s international career saw him make a host of key contributions to the Azzurri\u2019s success on the world stage. He played a pivotal role in Italy\u2019s victorious FIFA World Cup campaign in 2006, when they won the crown for a fourth time after defeating France in the final. Over the course of his career, Zambrotta earned 98 international caps, which yielded two goals, as he established himself as one of the most reliable full-backs of his era.<\/p>\n
Rachel Yankey
\nYankey is amongst the most celebrated figures in English women\u2019s football. During her playing days, the former England attacker was renowned for her dazzling wing play and exceptional creativity. She enjoyed an international career that spanned nearly two decades, during which time she clocked up 129 caps and plundered 19 goals to cement herself as one of her national team\u2019s most respected players. On the club front, Yankey won the English top-tier title on seven occasions, captured the FA Women\u2019s Cup 11 times and secured the UEFA Women\u2019s Cup once.<\/p>\n
Robert Pires
\nFrenchman Pires lifted the FIFA World Cup on home soil in 1998 before contributing to his nation\u2019s triumph at UEFA EURO 2000. He then tasted glory at the 2001 and 2003 editions of the FIFA Confederations Cup, being awarded both the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe accolades at the 2001 tournament. Primarily a left-winger, the former Arsenal man was part of Ars\u00e8ne Wenger\u2019s Invincibles side that went the entire 2003-04 Premier League season unbeaten.<\/p>\n
The draw ceremony
\nFans around the world will be able to follow the draw live on FIFA.com, FIFA+ and through FIFA\u2019s broadcast partners. The draw procedures detailing how the pots will be emptied and the groups will be formed are published on FIFA.com, along with the explainer video below.<\/p>\n
The expansion of FIFA\u2019s flagship event ahead of the 2026 instalment has seen the number of places for UEFA national teams increase from 13 to 16. It will be the most inclusive edition of the tournament yet, featuring a total of 48 teams for the first time.<\/p>\n
The UEFA qualifying group stage will begin in March 2025 and conclude in November 2025. It will follow a familiar format, with 12 groups of four or five teams and the group winners securing a place at the showpiece event.<\/p>\n
The four remaining berths will be decided in March 2026 in a 16-team UEFA
\nplay-off involving the 12 group-stage runners-up and the four best-ranked 2024-25 UEFA Nations League group winners that have neither qualified directly for the FIFA World Cup 26 as group winners nor entered the play-offs already as group runners-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five former stars of the global game \u2013 Ariane Hingst, Fernando Llorente, Gianluca Zambrotta, Rachel Yankey and Robert Pires \u2013 have been announced as the draw assistants for the upcoming UEFA Preliminary Draw for the FIFA World Cup 26\u2122. The event will take place at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland, at 12:00 CET […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1046718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-1046717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1046717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1046718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1046717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1046717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1046717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}