2026 World Cup: Panama Will Play Against England, Croatia, and Ghana
Major League Baseball player Aaron Judge pictured below, drew Panama’s name from Pot 3. The National Team was placed in group L of the biggest football event.
Panama was placed in Group L after the 2026 World Cup draw was held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. The National Team will play in the group stage alongside England (group leader), Croatia and Ghana. The national team will face England again in the biggest football event, as they did in Russia 2018, and will play for the first time in this stage against Croatia and Ghana. Panama was in pot 3 along with Norway, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Panama qualified for the 2026 World Cup, finishing first in Group A of the final phase of the Concacaf Qualifiers. The FPF was represented at the draw by Thomas Christiansen, technical director of the Panama Senior National Team; Miguel Zúñiga, general secretary; Christian Núñez, director of National Teams; Pedro Núñez, manager of National Teams; Ana Carolina Redondo, director of Commercialization, Marketing and Communications; John Dornheim, security officer; and Alexander Da Silva, Communications manager. Former World Cup goalkeeper Jaime Penedo was a special guest representing FIFA.
Trump Wins Inaugural FIFA Peace Prize
It wasn’t the one he had in mind but Donald Trump did finally take home a peace prize. Trump was the winner of the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize,” which the soccer organization awarded during its World Cup draw in Washington. “This is truly one of the great honors of my life,” Trump said as he accepted the award.
Citizens of 12 Countries are Banned from Visiting the U.S. and 7 Others Face Restrictions
U.S. President Donald Trump has resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the U.S. and those from seven others would face restrictions. The new ban includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. As mentioned, Haiti is going to the World Cup for the first time since 1974 — and for only the second time ever — after defeating Nicaragua 2-0 in a qualifying match last month. But Haitian soccer fans will be barred from watching their team compete in person in the U.S., with their country being one of 12 subject to a travel ban Trump enacted in June. The ban includes exemptions for World Cup athletes, coaches, “persons performing a necessary support role” and their immediate relatives, but it still applies to fans from those countries. Fans from Iran, another country subject to the ban, find themselves in the same situation. The spokesperson for Iran’s soccer federation also said visas were denied to key members of its delegation, and it was boycotting the draw at the Kennedy Center as a result.
