| Tourney Name: | 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) |
| Num Teams: | 54 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Prevseason: | 2022 |
| Nextseason: | 2030 |
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]
Below is the schedule of the European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.[6] Groups of five teams (Groups G–L) will begin in March 2025, while groups of four teams (Groups A–F) will begin in September 2025.[2] [7]
| Round | Matchday | Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groups A–F | Groups G–L | ||
| First round (group stage) | Matchday 1 | 21–22 March 2025 | |
| Matchday 2 | 24–25 March 2025 | ||
| Matchday 3 | 6–7 June 2025 | ||
| Matchday 4 | 9–10 June 2025 | ||
| Matchday 1 | Matchday 5 | 4–6 September 2025 | |
| Matchday 2 | Matchday 6 | 7–9 September 2025 | |
| Matchday 3 | Matchday 7 | 9–11 October 2025 | |
| Matchday 4 | Matchday 8 | 12–14 October 2025 | |
| Matchday 5 | Matchday 9 | 13–15 November 2025 | |
| Matchday 6 | Matchday 10 | 16–18 November 2025 | |
| Second round (play-offs) | Semi-finals | 26 March 2026 | |
| Finals | 31 March 2026 | ||
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] 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 due to suspension from UEFA and FIFA competitions following their country's invasion of Ukraine.[11] [12]
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, 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 will be drawn into twelve groups: six groups of four teams (Groups A–F) and six groups of five teams (Groups G–L).[13]
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.[13]
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. The four remaining teams in Pot 1 will be 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 differs from previous cycles, as all World Cup qualifying group draws since 2010 have 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.[14]
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 alphabetical 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.[13]
The following restrictions will be applied with computer assistance:
The draw pots were announced on 28 November 2024,[15] based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking released on the same day.[16]
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The group stage schedule will be confirmed by UEFA shortly after the draw.[17]
See main article: 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA second round.
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]