The European section of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification competition is acting 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 featured six groups of four and six groups of five teams. The winner of each group qualified for the World Cup, while the second-placed teams advanced 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): Six groups of four and six groups of five teams played home-and-away matches against all other teams in the group. Group winners qualified for the World Cup.
Second round (play-offs): 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) were 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.
Schedule
Below is the schedule of the European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.[6] Groups of five teams (Groups G–L) began in March 2025, while groups of four teams (Groups A–F) began in September 2025.[2][7][8]
The draw for the first round (group stage) was held on 13 December 2024, 12:00 CET, at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.[9][10][11][12] Of UEFA's 55 member associations, 54 men's national teams submitted a valid entry to the competition; Russia's entry was invalidated by their suspension from UEFA and FIFA competitions after their country's invasion of Ukraine.[13][14]
The teams were seeded into five pots: Pots 1 to 4 each contained twelve teams, and Pot 5 contained six teams. FIFA, in consultation with UEFA, announced the allocation of teams to the five pots following the completion of the league phase of the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League. The teams were drawn into twelve groups: six groups of four teams (Groups A–F) and six groups of five teams (Groups G–L).[15]
Following changes to the UEFA qualifying format, the competition featured staggered start dates. Five-team groups began in March 2025, while four-team groups started in September 2025. As 24 teams would 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.
Seeding method
Five-team groups could 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 played among themselves during this window. Additionally, as the four quarter-final winners would compete in the 2025 UEFA Nations League Finals in June, they could not begin World Cup qualifying until September and therefore had to be drawn into four-team groups.[15]
Given these conditions, Pot 1 contained the eight Nations League quarter-finalists, regardless of their position in the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2024. The quarter-finalists were represented by placeholders in the draw, denoting the winners and losers of each quarter-final pairing.[note 1] The four remaining teams in Pot 1 were the next best-ranked teams in the World Ranking that November. The remaining teams were allocated to Pots 2 to 5 based on the World Ranking. This seeding method differed from previous cycles, as all World Cup qualifying group draws since 2010 had been seeded based solely on the World Ranking.
While ultimately not required, adjustments to Pots 2 to 5 could have been necessary depending on the distribution of teams competing in the Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs in March 2025. Specifically, if any draw pot contained more Nations League play-off teams than could be accommodated in the available qualifying groups, the lowest-ranked Nations League play-off team from that pot would have been swapped with the highest-ranked eligible team from the lower pot. This process would have been repeated as needed within the same pot or across different pots.[16]
Draw procedure
The draw started with Pot 1 and completed with Pot 5. A team was drawn and assigned to the first available group (based on draw conditions) in alphabetical order. Each five-team group contained one team from each of the five pots, while each four-team group contained one team from each of the first four pots.[15]
The following restrictions were applied with computer assistance:
Competition-related reasons: To allow for the parallel scheduling of World Cup qualifying and Nations League matches in March and June 2025, the following restrictions applied for allocating teams to groups of four or five:
Pot 1: The four teams participating in the 2025 UEFA Nations League Finals (identified as the winners of quarter-finals 1–4) were guaranteed to be drawn into four-team groups (Groups A–F). All other teams from this pot could be drawn into any group.
Pots 2, 3 and 4: Nations League promotion/relegation play-off teams from these pots could be drawn into any-sized group, but could only join five-team groups (Groups G–L) that did not already contain a losing quarter-finalist or play-off participant. All other teams from these pots could be drawn into any group.
Winter venues: A maximum of two teams whose venues were identified as having high or medium risk of severe winter conditions could be placed in each group: Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway.[note 3]
The two "hard winter venues" (Faroe Islands and Iceland) generally cannot host games in March or November, thus could not be drawn together, whilst the others had to 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 could be placed in each group:[note 4]
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 finished outside the top two of their qualifying group. The sixteen teams were 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 were 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 was decided by a draw between the two semi-final pairings.[21]
Nations League team selection
Based on the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League interim overall ranking,[22] the four best-ranked Nations League group winners that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group advanced to the play-offs. If fewer than four Nations League group winners had been selected, the remaining spot(s) would have been allocated to the best-ranked remaining team(s) in the Nations League interim overall ranking that finished outside the top two of their qualifying group.[21]
At the start of qualifying, the teams in the table below were potentially able to receive a play-off spot in the order given:[note 6]
& Team qualified directly for World Cup as qualifying group winner
† Team advanced to the play-offs as qualifying group runner-up
‡ Team (in bold) advanced to the play-offs as one of the best four Nations League group winners outside top two of their qualifying group
Draw
The draw to determine the four play-off paths was held on 20 November 2025, 13:00 CET, at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.[23][24][25] The sixteen teams advancing from the first round were divided into four pots of four teams each. The twelve group runners-up were allocated to Pots 1 to 3 (seeded based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2025), while the four teams advancing via the Nations League were automatically placed into Pot 4.[21] The play-off paths are structured as follows:[21][26]
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-final started with Pot 1 and completed with Pot 4. Teams were drawn and assigned to the first available play-off semi-final in numerical order, as follows:
The Pot 1 teams (seeded) were allocated to semi-finals 1, 3, 5 and 7 as the host team.
The Pot 2 teams (seeded) were allocated to semi-finals 2, 4, 6 and 8 as the host team.
The Pot 3 teams (unseeded) were allocated to semi-finals 2, 4, 6 and 8 as the away team.
The Pot 4 teams (unseeded) were allocated to semi-finals 1, 3, 5 and 7 as the away team.
The draw for the final hosts took place immediately afterwards, with finals A, B, C and D each having one of their semi-finalists selected as the host team.
No restrictions applied in the draw, as none of the clashes that were prohibited by UEFA for political reasons could occur. The seeding pots for the semi-final draw were as follows.[26] The FIFA Men's World Rankings of 19 November 2025 are shown below in brackets,[27] with the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League interim overall ranking appended for Pot 4 teams.
↑Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
↑From 1954 to 1990, Germany competed as West Germany. A separate team for East Germany also participated in qualification during this time, qualifying only once in 1974.
Top goalscorers
There have been 637 goals scored in 192 matches, for an average of 3.32 goals per match (as of 18 November 2025). Players highlighted in bold are still active in the competition.
During the draw on 13 December 2024, when Ukraine was drawn, the map of the country did not include the disputed area of Crimea, which led to outrage from the Ukrainian Association of Football. FIFA later apologised for the incident.[28]
12As there were only six four-team groups available for the eight quarter-finalists, and the identities of the 2025 UEFA Nations League Finals participants were not known at the time of the World Cup qualifying draw, the eight quarter-finalists were represented in Pot 1 as the winners or defeated teams of quarter-finals 1–4.
↑The Gibraltar–Spain draw condition only applied to the placeholder for the loser of quarter-final 1, featuring the Netherlands and Spain. This was because the winner would be placed in a four-team group, while Gibraltar, as a Pot 5 team, was placed in a five-team group.
↑Belarus and Ukraine, which typically have a winter venue draw restriction, did not have it applied given they were required to play at neutral venues.
↑Excessive travel pairings involving France, Spain and Portugal applied to the placeholders for both the winner and loser of their respective quarter-final pairing.
↑Israel, which typically have an excessive travel restriction with Iceland, were removed given they were required to play at neutral venues.
↑The table lists teams down to the lowest-ranked team that could have potentially received a play-off spot (the team ranked 16th in League A), based on the distribution of teams to qualifying groups. Ultimately the last spot only reached down to the lowest-ranked League C group winner.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Erling Haaland (16 goals)
