2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

The European section of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification competition will act as qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States, for national teams that are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). A total of 16 slots in the final tournament are available for UEFA teams.

A revised qualification format was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Nyon, Switzerland, on 25 January 2023. As the number of final tournament slots for UEFA has increased from 13 to 16,^[1] the qualification format was modified from the previous cycle. The qualifying group stage will feature twelve groups of four or five teams. The winner of each group will qualify for the World Cup, while the second-placed teams will advance to the play-offs, along with the four best-ranked group winners from the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League that finished outside the top two of their World Cup qualifying group.^[2] On 28 June 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee formally recommended the qualification format to FIFA,^[3] which was later approved.^[4][5]

• First round (group stage): Twelve groups of four or five teams will play home-and-away matches against all other teams in the group. Group winners will qualify for the World Cup.
• Second round (play-off stage): Sixteen teams (twelve group runners-up and four best Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League overall ranking, that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group) will be drawn into four paths, playing two rounds of single-match play-offs (semi-finals with the seeded teams to host, followed by finals, with the home teams to be drawn). The four path winners will qualify for the World Cup.

Below is the schedule of the European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.^[6] Groups of five will begin in March 2025, while groups of four will begin in September 2025.^[2][7]

The draw for the first round (group stage) will be held on 13 December 2024, 12:00 CET, at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.^{[8][9][10][11]} Of UEFA's 55 member associations, 54 men's national teams submitted a valid entry to the competition, while Russia's entry was not accepted^{[note 1]} due to suspension from UEFA and FIFA competitions following their country's invasion of Ukraine.^[12][13]

The teams will be seeded into five pots: Pots 1 to 4 will each contain twelve teams, and Pot 5 will contain six teams. FIFA, in consultation with UEFA, will announce the allocation of teams to the five pots following the completion of the league phase of the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League. The teams will be drawn into twelve groups: six groups of four teams (Groups 1–6) and six groups of five teams (Groups 7–12).^[14]

Following changes to the UEFA qualifying format, the competition will feature staggered starting dates. Five-team groups will begin in March 2025, while four-team groups will start in September 2025. As 24 teams will be competing in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League in March 2025 (8 in the League A quarter-finals and 16 in the League A/B or B/C promotion/relegation play-offs), significant changes were made to the seeding and draw procedures to accommodate all teams within the schedule.

Five-team groups can only contain one team participating in Nations League matches in March 2025, allowing these teams to have two free matchdays in World Cup qualifying to be scheduled during March. The remaining four teams in their group will play among themselves during this window. Additionally, as the four quarter-final winners will compete in the 2025 UEFA Nations League Finals in June, they cannot begin World Cup qualifying until September and must therefore be drawn into four-team groups.^[14]

Given these conditions, Pot 1 will contain the eight Nations League quarter-finalists, regardless of their position in the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2024. The quarter-finalists will be represented by placeholders in the draw, denoting the winners and losers of each quarter-final pairing.^{[note 2]} The four remaining teams in Pot 1 will be the next best-ranked teams in the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2024. In principle, the remaining teams will be allocated to Pots 2 to 5 based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking. However, adjustments to Pots 2 to 5 may be required depending on the number of teams needing the March 2025 window for the Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs.

Should a given draw pot include more Nations League play-off teams than the maximum number of qualifying groups able to contain such teams, a pot adjustment will be made. Such an adjustment will follow these principles:

• A pot swap will be made between the lowest-ranked Nations League play-off participant of the pot in question and the highest-ranked compatible team of the lower pot.
• The same procedure applies if an additional swap is required in the same pot or another pot.

This seeding method differs from previous cycles, as all World Cup qualifying group draws since 2010 have been seeded based solely on the FIFA Men's World Ranking.

The draw will start with Pot 1 and complete with Pot 5. A team will be drawn and assigned to the first available group (based on draw conditions) in numerical order. Each five-team group will contain one team from each of the five pots, while each four-team group will contain one team from each of the first four pots.^[14]

The following restrictions will be applied with computer assistance:

• Competition-related reasons:
  • The four teams participating in the 2025 UEFA Nations League Finals (identified as the winners of quarter-finals 1–4) will be guaranteed to be drawn into four-team groups (Groups 1–6).
  • Depending on the pot distribution of Nations League play-off teams, Pot 1 teams not involved in Nations League matches in March may need to be drawn into five-team groups (Groups 7–12).^{[note 3]}
  • Nations League play-off teams from Pots 2 to 4 are prioritised for allocation to four-team groups (Groups 1–6).^{[note 4]} If a play-off team is in Pot 5, they will be drawn into a five-team group (Groups 7–12) capable of accommodating such a team.
  • Additionally, teams not involved in Nations League matches in March from Pots 2 to 4 may be required to be drawn into five-team groups (Groups 7–12) to ensure a sufficient number of groups are available to contain Nations League play-off teams from the same or subsequent pots.^{[note 5]}
• Prohibited clashes: For political reasons, matches between the following pairs of teams are considered prohibited clashes and cannot be drawn into the same group: Belarus–Ukraine, Gibraltar–Spain, Kosovo–Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo–Serbia. (Additionally, Armenia–Azerbaijan was identified as a prohibited clash, but the teams were in the same pot for the draw.)
• Winter venues: A maximum of two teams whose venues are identified as having high or medium risk of severe winter conditions can be placed in each group: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Ukraine.^{[note 6]}
  • The two "hard winter venues" (Faroe Islands and Iceland) generally cannot host games in March or November, and therefore could not be drawn together; the others shall play as few home matches as possible in March and November.
• Excessive travel: A maximum of one pair of teams identified with excessive travel distance in relation to other countries can be placed in each group:
  • Azerbaijan: with Gibraltar, Iceland, Portugal.
  • Iceland: with Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel.
  • Kazakhstan: with Andorra, England, Faroe Islands, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales.

The following draw pots are provisional until confirmed by FIFA and UEFA following the release of the FIFA Men's World Ranking on 28 November 2024.^[15][16][17]

Pot 1 QF Team Rank 1  Spain[QF]  Netherlands[QF] 2  France[QF]  Croatia[QF] 3  Portugal[QF]  Denmark[QF] 4  Italy[QF]  Germany[QF] —  England  Belgium[PO]   Switzerland  Austria[PO]	Pot 2 Team Rank  Ukraine[PO]  Sweden  Turkey[PO]  Wales  Hungary[PO]  Serbia[PO]  Poland  Greece[PO]  Romania  Slovakia[PO]  Czech Republic  Norway	Pot 3 Team Rank  Scotland[PO]  Slovenia[PO]  Republic of Ireland[PO]  Albania  North Macedonia  Georgia[PO]  Finland  Iceland[PO]  Northern Ireland  Montenegro  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Israel
Pot 4 Team Rank  Bulgaria[PO]  Luxembourg  Kosovo[PO]  Belarus  Armenia[PO]  Kazakhstan  Azerbaijan  Estonia  Cyprus  Faroe Islands  Latvia  Lithuania	Pot 5 Team Rank  Moldova  Malta  Andorra  Gibraltar  Liechtenstein  San Marino

Banned from entering qualifying

Team	Rank
Russia

Key

The group stage schedule will be confirmed by UEFA shortly after the draw.^[10]

The second round (play-offs) will be contested by the twelve group runners-up and the best four Nations League group winners, based on the Nations League interim overall ranking, who finish outside the top two of their qualifying group. The sixteen teams will be split into four play-off paths, each containing four teams. Each path will feature two single-leg semi-finals and one single-leg final. In the semi-finals, the fixtures of each path will be determined by seeding pots, with the Pot 1 team hosting the Pot 4 team and the Pot 2 team hosting the Pot 3 team. The host of each path final will be decided by a draw between the two semi-final pairings.^[18]

Based on the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League interim overall ranking, the best four Nations League group winners that finish outside the top two of their qualifying group will advance to the play-offs. If fewer than four Nations League group winners can be selected, the remaining spot(s) will be allocated to the best remaining team(s) in the Nations League interim overall ranking that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group.^[18]

The table below shows the order in which teams will be selected based on the UEFA Nations League interim overall ranking.^{[note 7]}

UNL	Rank	Team		Qualifying group
Nations League group winners
A	1	Spain	(X)
	2	Germany	(X)
	3	Portugal	(X)
	4	France	(X)
B	17	England
	18	Norway
	19	Wales
	20	Czech Republic
C	33	Romania
	34	Sweden
	35	North Macedonia
	36	Northern Ireland
D	49	Moldova
	50	San Marino
Nations League remaining teams
A	5	Italy
	6	Netherlands
	7	Denmark
	8	Croatia
	9	Scotland
	10	Serbia
	11	Hungary
	12	Belgium
	13	Poland
	14	Israel
	15	Switzerland
	16	Bosnia and Herzegovina
B	21	Greece
	22	Austria

Key

• (X) Team is assured at least a play-off spot based on Nations League ranking

For the draw, the sixteen teams will be divided into four pots of four teams each. The twelve group runners-up will be allocated to pots 1 to 3, with seeding based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2025. The four teams qualified via the Nations League will be automatically seeded into pot 4. The play-off paths are structured as follows:^[18]

• Play-off Path A is formed by semi-finals 1 and 2, with the winners of both semi-finals advancing to final A.
• Play-off Path B is formed by semi-finals 3 and 4, with the winners of both semi-finals advancing to final B.
• Play-off Path C is formed by semi-finals 5 and 6, with the winners of both semi-finals advancing to final C.
• Play-off Path D is formed by semi-finals 7 and 8, with the winners of both semi-finals advancing to final D.

The draw for the semi-finals will start with Pot 1 and complete with Pot 4. Teams will be drawn and assigned to the first available play-off semi-final (considering prohibited clashes) in numerical order, as follows:

• The Pot 1 teams (seeded) will be allocated to semi-finals 1, 3, 5 and 7 as the host team.
• The Pot 2 teams (seeded) will be allocated to semi-finals 2, 4, 6 and 8 as the host team.
• The Pot 3 teams (unseeded) will be allocated to semi-finals 2, 4, 6 and 8 as the away team.
• The Pot 4 teams (unseeded) will be allocated to semi-finals 1, 3, 5 and 7 as the away team.

The draw for the final hosts will take place immediately afterwards, with finals A, B, C and D each having one of their semi-finalists selected as the host team.

For political reasons, matches between the following pairs of teams are considered prohibited clashes and cannot be drawn into the same play-off path: Armenia–Azerbaijan, Belarus–Ukraine, Gibraltar–Spain, Kosovo–Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo–Serbia. The seeding pots for the semi-final draw are as follows.

• Official FIFA World Cup website
  • Qualifiers – UEFA, FIFA.com
• European Qualifiers, UEFA.com