In the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 48 nations will participate for the first time. During the recently concluded international match phase, several countries have qualified again. In this overview, you can see who has already qualified and where how many World Cup tickets are still up for grabs.
Who is already qualified?
28 countries are already securely qualified for the World Cup. England is currently the only European representative. From Africa, with nine nations (Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Senegal, Ivory Coast), perhaps all participants are already set.
The same applies to South America and Asia, where Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Colombia, as well as Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have already secured their tickets. From Oceania, New Zealand is definitely in, and North and Central America are sending the hosts USA, Mexico, and Canada into the race so far.
Where are there still open spots?
In total, 20 spots remain open. 15 of these will be filled by European national teams. Similar to the German group, the next international match phase will bring many decisions.
From the CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean Federation), three of the six remaining fixed spots still need to be allocated. To this end, FIFA will host a playoff tournament in March, where from six participants from the CONCACAF (two countries), as well as AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL, and OFC (one country each), two will qualify in the end. This results in 45 qualifying nations, plus the three hosts.
Who has to go to the playoffs?
This will be decided in November. Besides the qualification groups, European nations – if they are not already securely in – also have the opportunity through the Nations League to jump into the playoffs of the twelve group runners-up and compete for the four remaining UEFA tickets. For the playoff tournament in March, New Caledonia (OFC) and Bolivia (CONMEBOL) are already firmly qualified.
How does the playoff tournament work?
The tournament will take place in March 2026 during the international match week from March 23 to 31. The four nations with the lowest FIFA world rankings will compete against each other in semifinals. The winners will then face the two highest-ranked qualified teams in the finals. The winners of the final duels will secure their ticket for the 2026 World Cup.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
📸 JEWEL SAMAD – AFP or licensors
