2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifications, Formats, Fixed Devices, etc.

With England completing its latest National League campaign in November – resuming promotions to A-League in the process – their next match will put them on a World Cup tour under the guidance of new boss Thomas Tuchel.

Now, the mind will turn to the qualifiers for the 2026 Championship, which is scheduled to begin in March 2025. Now it’s less than 18 months in the four-year tournament, but some leagues are already halfway through their qualification process.

After the qualifying phase draw in December, the team can start driving the road to the North American World Cup since 1994.

UEFA World Cup Qualification Lottery Information

Teams are drawn to 12 groups of 12 or five teams to play football with each other. Teams attracted in one of four or five teams will start qualifying in March, while teams attracted in one of six four teams will start campaigning in September. All groups end in November 2025.

England was drawn to Group K, and Thomas Tuchel’s first mission was the England boss clashing with Albania and Latvia.

The 12-group champions will earn a spot in the 2026 World Cup, with the remaining four European League titles claimed by the winner of the campaigner to involve 12 runners-ups.

UEFA World Cup Qualifier Playoff

Runner-up from each of the 12 qualified groups will earn a spot in the playoffs, as well as the four best group champions of the 2024/25 National League, not finishing first or second in the qualifying round.

These 16 teams will be drawn to four play-off tracks, with four teams on each route. The semi-finals will be played on one leg, followed by the same international window in March 2026, a few months before the World Cup begins.

UEFA World Cup Qualification Fixed Date

The group stages of the qualifiers will be held between March and November 2025. The playoff fixture will be held between March 26 and 31, 2026. As for the tournament itself, it will start on June 11 and the last one will be held on July 19, 2026.

World Cup 2026 format

Starting in 2026, after seven consecutive games with 32 participants, 48 ​​countries will fight against them and take them home to win the World Cup trophy.

This means each league has more places in the final game. The European Union now has 16 attractions, CAF now gets 9 locations (more than 5 attractions), while the AFC countries get 8 attractions instead of the 4.5 they have enjoyed before.

Elsewhere, the CONCACAF team will have six attractions, three of which will travel to the United States, Canada and Mexico. Conmebol now has six positions (from 4.5), and OFC now has a guaranteed position instead of the 0.5 it previously provided.

As competition expands, the format changes slightly. The 48 teams will be divided into 12 groups of 12 teams.

The top two in each group will qualify for the knockout stage, as well as eight best third-place teams, creating 32 rounds.

From then on, a straight-forward knockout match will be held to see who will be crowned at Metropolitan Life Stadium west of New York City.

The complete venue and its capacity can be found in the table below, the competition returns to North America for the first time since 1994.

The 1994 World Cup in the United States was the final World Cup, with 24 teams, and the next team in the United States will be the first appearance of the 48 teams.

But before all of this, the UEFA qualifier will cross the pond from Europe within 18 months.