2026 World Cup (archived)
Qualifying
- AFC - 8 Teams Automatic, 1 Team in Playoff
- 16 teams in main draw, 4 Groups of 4 in double round robin. Top two advance in each, third place face off in one round robin group. Top team advances to playoff
- CAF - 9 Teams Automatic, 1 Team in Playoff
- 20 teams in main draw, 5 Groups of 4 in double round robin. Top automatically advances, Second place teams ranked by Points and Goal Differential. Top 4 second place teams automatically qualify, fifth second place team in playoff
- CONCACAF - 6 Teams Automatic, 1+1 Teams in Playoff
- Mexico, Canada and United States Qualify as Host
- Normally, 3 Groups of 4 out of 12 teams would be in double round robin. However, the Hex (one double round robin of six teams) will be used, with the Top 3 advancing automatically and the 4th and 5th place team advancing to the playoff.
- CONMEBOL - 6 Teams Automatic, 1 Team in Playoff
- The Copa America will be used as the form of Qualification. 2 Groups of 5 in a round robin, Top 2 in each group advance to the Semi-Finals (and therefore the World Cup). Remaining six teams will qualify in a Hex just like CONCACAF, but will only do a single round robin. Top two in the Hex automatically qualify, third place advances to the playoff.
- OFC - 1 Team Automatic, 1 Team in Playoff
- 6 Teams divided into 2 groups of 3 in Double Round Robin. Top Teams qualify to two-legged final. Winner advances to World Cup, runner-up advances to Playoff.
- UEFA - 16 Teams Automatic
- There are 55 teams total in UEFA. Bottom 14 face each other in 2 team two-legged playoff, winners advance to main stage. Remaining 48 teams divided into 8 groups of 6. Top two in each group automatically qualify.
- Playoff - 2 Teams Advance
- 1 AFC (Third Place Playoff), 1 CAF (5th second place team), 2 CONCACAF (4th and 5th in Hex), 1 CONMEBOL (7th), 1 OFC (2nd)
Teams
Qualification
For the first time in FIFA World Cup history, 48 teams were able to qualify for the World Cup. Also for the first time, three countries were automatically entered as hosts, as United States, Mexico, and Canada were confirmed to host the World Cup. It is the third time Mexico will host, the second time the United States will host, and the first time Canada will host. It is also the first time since 1986 that Canada will participate in the World Cup, ironically a year when Mexico hosted a World Cup.
Eight teams were able to directly qualify from Asia. China qualified for the first time since 2002, while Uzbekistan repeated their previous World Cup success by topping their qualifying group. India qualified for their first ever World Cup on merit; they qualified by default for the 1950 World Cup, but did not participate. Jordan also qualified for their first ever World Cup. The inter-continental playoff spot went to Qatar, who were expected to host the 2022 World Cup but were found guilty of bribing their way to host the tournament.
Nine teams were able to qualify from Africa. Mali qualified for their first ever World Cup, beating Algeria and Cameroon in their group in the process; Cameroon endured a disastrous qualifying campaign and did not qualify for the second place playoff. Egypt, who qualified for the last two World Cups, placed last in their qualifying group; Angola qualified for their first World Cup in the same group for the first time since 2006. Nigeria qualified in Group C, while Togo and Cape Verde Islands battled for second place, with Togo nearly winning to advance. Ghana and Morocco both floundered in their qualifying group, despite being favoured to win, while Burkina Faso qualified for the World Cup for the first time, while Uganda repeated their surprise success four years previously. Zambia also qualified for their first World Cup. In the second place playoff, Togo, Algeria, and South Africa all advanced, while Ivory Coast had to play in the inter-continental playoff.
North America's qualifying threw a few surprises in their first round, as Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica, all seeded teams, all failed to advance to the second round. Teams such as Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Curacao all advanced to the "hexagonal" for the first time. In the end, Trinidad would qualify for the first time since 2006, Haiti for the first time since 1974, and Guatemala for the first time ever. Nicaragua and Curacao advanced to the inter-continental playoff, with CONCACAF given a second team as they were hosting the main event.
South America had to alter their qualifying format as 6 out of the 10 member teams were given spots to qualify for the event. The qualifying was divided into two rounds, with the top two in the first round automatically advancing. Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Ecuador all advanced to the World Cup this way. Surprisingly, Argentina and Brazil had to go to the second round despite being seeded, and gathered with the rest of South America in their own "hexagonal," much like North America. Argentina was able to advance, while the surprising Venezuelans qualified for their first World Cup by winning four out of five matches in the group, beating both Argentina and Brazil in the process. Brazil advanced to the inter-continental qualifier, while Uruguay was knocked out of the tournament.
Oceania was given one spot automatically, and New Zealand, the only powerhouse team in the conference, took advantage and won all of their games to advance to the World Cup. Papua New Guinea, who was ranked last out of all the teams to advance to the main stage of the qualifying, surprised Fiji and Tahiti in their group and advanced to the inter-continental playoff.
In Europe, 16 teams were able to qualify, and none of them were able to enter the inter-continental playoff. This meant that only the top two teams from each qualifying group were able to advance. England and Austria advanced in their group, repeating their success from 2022. Belgium was knocked out in the process. Ireland topped their group advancing to the World Cup for the first time since 2002, going alongside France. Spain easily qualified in their group while Northern Ireland advanced to the World Cup for the first time since 1986, making it the first time both Ireland teams were in the same World Cup. Italy and Denmark qualified in their group, after Finland, who had never qualified for the World Cup before, lost a heart-breaker to Hungary in their last qualifying game. Turkey and Germany qualified in their group, narrowly beating out Serbia. Israel qualified for their first World Cup since 1970, while Montenegro qualified for the first time since they were a part of Serbia-Montenegro in 2006. They knocked out Netherlands and Switzerland in the process. Croatia and Russia qualified as expected, knocking out Wales who were expected to be a contender, only to place below Luxembourg in the group. Portugal qualified in their group, while Romania qualified for the first time since 1998,while Poland and Albania narrowly missed out.
In the inter-continental playoffs, Papua New Guinea and Curacao both advanced against Brazil and Ivory Coast respectively. Brazil easily defeated Papua New Guinea to qualify, while Ivory Coast needed a late goal and extra time to qualify against Curacao, advancing to their first World Cup since 2014.
In total, eight teams qualified for the first time in their history (including Montenegro, who did not retain their history when they separated from Serbia), while five other teams (including hosts Canada) qualified for the first time since the turn of the millennium. 20 teams out of 32 who qualified in 2022 were able to qualify in 2026, while four more had only missed the previous edition, last qualifying in 2018.
Groups
Group A
United States vs
Northern Ireland (Tie 1-1, NIR win 3-2 in penalties)
Northern Ireland vs
China (NIR 1-0)
United States vs
China (USA 3-1)
Group B
Group C
Group D
Italy vs
Iran (ITA 3-0)
Iran vs
Ivory Coast (Tie 0-0, IRN win 3-1 in penalties)
Italy vs
Ivory Coast (ITA 2-0)
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Spain vs
South Korea (ESP 1-0)
South Korea vs
South Africa (RSA 2-1)
Spain vs
South Africa (ESP 3-1)
Group I
Group J
Croatia vs
Nigeria (CRO 3-1)
Nigeria vs
Guatemala (Tie 1-1, NIG win 4-2 on penalties)
Croatia vs
Guatemala (CRO 4-0)
Group K
Chile vs
Republic of Ireland (IRE 2-0)
Republic of Ireland vs
New Zealand (Tie 0-0, IRE win 5-4 on penalties)
Chile vs
New Zealand (CHL 4-0)
Group L
France vs
Burkina Faso (FRA 6-0)
Burkina Faso vs
Uzbekistan (UZB 2-0)
France vs
Uzbekistan (FRA 4-0)
Group M
Brazil vs
Austria (BRA 2-0)
Austria vs
Trinidad and Tobago (TRI 3-1)
Brazil vs
Trinidad and Tobago (BRA 6-0)
Group N
Group O
Group P
Colombia vs
Denmark (COL 1-0)
Denmark vs
India (Tie 0-0, DEN win 4-2 on penalties)
Colombia vs
India (COL 2-0)
Knockout Stage