Norway and Portugal World Cup draw controversy explained as fans left baffled

Fans took to social media after Uzbekistan were placed into Group K with Portugal and Colombia during the 2026 World Cup draw rather than joining France and Senegal in Group I

Football fans were left scratching their heads during the 2026 World Cup draw when Rio Ferdinand announced that Uzbekistan would join Group K with Portugal and Colombia. The nation were drawn towards the end of the third pot by Aaron Judge during Friday night’s ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

Despite Group I – made up of France and Senegal – being the first group remaining alphabetically which wouldn’t cause a clash and only had two teams in it, Ferdinand instead placed Uzbekistan into Group K. Justifying the move, the former Manchester United defender explained: “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.”

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As Norway and Panama were the only two sides remaining, Panama ultimately ended up joining Group L alongside England and Croatia, while Norway were put into Group I, with France and Senegal – given no more than two UEFA nations can play in the same group at next summer’s tournament.

And while the draw moved on swiftly to pot four soon after, fans were left baffled online by the choice to pair Uzbekistan with Portugal and Colombia. One posted on X: “Does anyone have an explanation why Portugal got Uzbekistan instead of Norway?”

Another added: “Why can’s Uzbekistan go into a group with Senegal and France?” A third pondered: “Umm, why could Uzbekistan not be drawn in Group I?”

Thankfully, a number of other social media users had an explanation for the confusing situation. One wrote: “They needed an available Europe x 2 + Africa group so that the Bolivian/Surinam/Iraq-slot had somewhere to go.”

Meanwhile, a second posted on Reddit: “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.”

As per FIFA’s rules for the tournament: “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 remained the only viable group to have two European teams and an African team, given it contained France and Senegal, adding Uzbekistan into the mix would have, in turn, caused clashes in the next round of the draw.

And here’s why:

Either Iraq, Bolivia or Suriname are set to play in the 2026 World Cup, dependent on who makes it to and wins the play-off.UEFA is the only federation in which two nations can play in the same group stage of the World Cup.Iraq, Suriname and Bolivia are of the AFC, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL federations respectively.At the time of Uzbekistan being pulled, each group barring I already contained at least one team from either AFC, CONCACAF or CONMEBOL.This means that Group I was the only fitting group for the play-off group winner to be put into – barring Group L, which followed alphabetically and would therefore have not been a viable selection.With Colombia already being in the Portugal group – a CONMEBOL team – that would also have prevented Bolivia from joining the group, should they win the play-offs.

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