World Cup 2026 Sweepstake

This report generates and displays a reproducible,
quasi-random draw for the 2026 World Cup

  Report Author: Alistair Thorpe
  Report Date: 2026-06-10
  Data Pull From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FIFA_World_Cup_draw
  Data Pull Date: 2025-06-10

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0.1 Participants

people <- c("Daniel", "Johnny", "Robert", "Nate", "Sage", 
            "Tom", "Molly", "Stephanie", "Alistair") #Ordered based on the Whatsapp Poll

0.2 Team Pots

pots <- list(
  pot1 = c("Argen-\ntina", "Brazil", "England", "France",
    "Germany", "Mexico", "Nether-\nlands", "Portugal",
    "Spain", "United\nStates", "Belgium", "Canada"),

  pot2 = c("Japan", "Croatia", "Switz-\nerland", "Uruguay",
    "Morocco", "Senegal", "Iran", "South\nKorea",
    "Ecuador", "Austria", "Australia", "Colombia"),

  pot3 = c("Saudi\nArabia", "Norway", "Tunisia", "Paraguay",
    "Egypt", "Algeria", "Scotland", "Uzbe-\nkistan",
    "Ivory\nCoast", "Panama", "South\nAfrica",
    "Qatar"),

  pot4 = c("Jordan", "Cape\nVerde", "Ghana",
    "Haiti", "New\nZealand", "Curacao", "Bosnia and\nHerz...",
    "Czechia", "Sweden", "Turkey", "DR Congo",  "Iraq"))

0.3 Draw Function

# Since 9 does not divide into 42, need to build a fair plan for the extra teams

make_bonus_plan <- function(people, seed = 4242) {
  set.seed(seed) #Set the randomisation seed to 4242 since there are 42 teams and 42 is also the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything

  # Pick the 3 people who will get 6 total teams
  double_people <- sample(people, 3)
  single_people <- setdiff(people, double_people)

  plan <- data.frame(
    Person = character(0),
    Pot = character(0),
    stringsAsFactors = FALSE
  )

  # The 3 double_people get one extra from pot3 and one extra from pot4
  plan <- rbind(
    plan,
    data.frame(
      Person = rep(double_people, each = 2),
      Pot = rep(c("pot3", "pot4"), times = 3),
      stringsAsFactors = FALSE
    )
  )

  # The 6 single_people split the pot1 and pot2 extras
  pot1_people <- sample(single_people, 3)
  pot2_people <- setdiff(single_people, pot1_people)

  plan <- rbind(
    plan,
    data.frame(Person = pot1_people, Pot = "pot1", stringsAsFactors = FALSE),
    data.frame(Person = pot2_people, Pot = "pot2", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
  )

  plan
}


###

draw_world_cup <- function(people, pots, seed = 4242) {

  set.seed(seed)

  result <- setNames(
    replicate(length(people), character(0), simplify = FALSE),
    people
  )

  bonus_plan <- make_bonus_plan(people, seed = seed)

  for (pot_name in names(pots)) {

    teams <- sample(pots[[pot_name]])
    n_people <- length(people)

    # Base assignment: one team per person
    order_people <- sample(people)

    for (i in seq_len(n_people)) {
      result[[order_people[i]]] <- c(result[[order_people[i]]], teams[i])
    }

    # Bonus teams: exactly 3 per pot
    leftover_teams <- sample(teams[(n_people + 1):length(teams)])
    bonus_people <- sample(bonus_plan$Person[bonus_plan$Pot == pot_name])

    for (i in seq_along(leftover_teams)) {
      result[[bonus_people[i]]] <- c(result[[bonus_people[i]]], leftover_teams[i])
    }
  }

  result
}

0.4 Run Draw

Person	Team_1	Team_2	Team_3	Team_4	Team_5	Team_6
Daniel	England	Mexico	Iran	Uzbe- kistan	Jordan
Johnny	Germany	Morocco	South Africa	Algeria	Czechia	Turkey
Robert	Nether- lands	South Korea	Egypt	Scotland	Iraq	Ghana
Nate	United States	Switz- erland	Paraguay	Panama	Bosnia and Herz…	New Zealand
Sage	Argen- tina	Brazil	Croatia	Ivory Coast	Sweden
Tom	Portugal	Australia	Austria	Tunisia	DR Congo
Molly	France	Senegal	Ecuador	Norway	Curacao
Stephanie	Spain	Colombia	Uruguay	Saudi Arabia	Cape Verde
Alistair	Belgium	Canada	Japan	Qatar	Haiti

• Red font=Pot 1 Team, Blue font=Pot 2 Team, Green font=Pot 3 Team, Purple font=Pot 4 Team

• In case reading code is not your idea of fun, the important thing with this draw was that I specified that the three people who had 6 teams (vs 5) were not allowed to have their extra team come from either pot 1 or pot 2 as that did not seem fair.

0.5 League table

• Updated as often as possible (likely weekly)

	PTS	W	D	L	# of Teams
Johnny	0	0	0	0	6
Nate	0	0	0	0	6
Robert	0	0	0	0	6
Alistair	0	0	0	0	5
Daniel	0	0	0	0	5
Molly	0	0	0	0	5
Sage	0	0	0	0	5
Stephanie	0	0	0	0	5
Tom	0	0	0	0	5

0.6 Winners

• 1st, 2nd, 3rd place Team finishes TBD…