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

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."

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 Europ