The 2026 FIFA World Cup is less than a year away from us. And so, the qualification for the biggest football competition in the world is well underway. Hundreds of countries from six continents vied for 48 sports in the largest FIFA World Cup of all time, which will be played in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
Today, we will look at the teams that have qualified for next yearâ€s World Cup. While we are still months away from the tournament, several teams from all continental confederations have already stamped their ticket for the World Cup.
So far, out of the 48 spots, 28 are already filled. Out of these, three teams were already confirmed for the competition even before the qualification started, those being Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. As hosts, they automatically qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Speaking of the hosts, there are three out of six (possibly seven) teams that will play in the World Cup from CONCACAF, the North American football federation. The 12 remaining teams, besides the hosts, were put into three groups of four each. The teams that top these groups will qualify.
Check Out: Teams Qualified For FIFA World Cup 2026
While Suriname, Curacao, and Honduras are currently on top of groups A, B, and C, respectively, this round of qualification will end on November 18, when we will find out the remaining three CONCACAF qualified teams. But thatâ€s not all, as out of the three teams that finish second in these groups, two will make it to the Inter-confederation play-offs as a final chance to qualify for the World Cup.
From there, we travel south to CONMEBOL, the South American federation. Out of the 10 teams here, six will qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while the team that finishes seventh will go to the play-off.
This group is the first federation that is completely done with its qualification. And so, we have the teams that will play in the World Cup. Argentina, the defending champions, finished on top of the table with a whopping 38 points.
The next five teams, those being Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay, all finished on 28 points each. While it was a fine qualifying round for all these teams, Brazil’s finishing fifth was surely surprising.
The team that made it to the intercontinental play-off from CONMEBOL is Bolivia, while Venezuela, Peru, and Chile missed out on a chance to participate in footballâ€s biggest tournament.
Next up is UEFA, the European confederation. Not only has Europe produced the most FIFA World Cup-winning teams, but the continent also has the most slots in the upcoming edition. Here, 54 nations are competing for 16 open slots in the confederation with the most complex qualification process.
The 54 countries are divided into 12 groups of either four or five teams. Groups A to F are of four teams each, while groups G to L are of five teams each. After each side in a group plays their allotted six or eight (depending on group size) games, the team that finishes on top of their group will qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Meanwhile, the 12 teams that finished as the runners-up in their groups will go into the next qualifying round. These 12 teams will be joined by four teams with the best Nations League rankings that failed to finish either first or second in their group.
Check Out: Teams Qualified For FIFA World Cup 2026
These 16 teams will then compete in the second round of qualification. And four out of these 16 will qualify for the World Cup. The result makes a total of 16 UEFA teams that will play in the biggest football World Cup ever.
While several heavy-hitters have all but qualified, there is only one UEFA team at the moment to have officially found a berth on the World Cup train, that being England. Harry Kaneâ€s team is confirmed to top group K, even though they still have two games to play. Having won all six of their qualifying matches so far, they are on top of the group with 18 points.
Let us travel to Africa next, and the CAF federation has nine direct slots for World Cup qualification, the second most for any continent. The 54 teams vying for a qualification slot were divided into nine groups of six teams each. The first round, which has concluded, saw each team play 10 matches in a group, and the group winner directly qualified for the World Cup. Meanwhile, the four best-performing second-placed teams will go into round two, the winner of which will go into the intercontinental play-off.
The six teams that have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup by finishing on top of their group are Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Cape Verde, Morocco, the Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia, and Ghana.
On the other hand, the four teams that qualified for the second round are Gabon, DR Congo, Cameroon, and Nigeria.
We travel to Asia next, as 46 AFC teams compete for eight direct qualification spots and one place in the intercontinental play-off. The first round saw the 20 lowest-ranked teams in the federation play for 10 spots in round two.
In the second round, the remaining 36 teams were divided into nine groups of four teams each. The top two finishing teams from each group made it to the third round, where the remaining 18 teams were divided into three groups of six teams each.
The teams that finished in the top two in their group in the third round qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Meanwhile, the third- and fourth-placed teams from each group made it to the fourth and final round.
Here, the remaining six teams were divided into two groups of three teams each. The teams that topped their group in the fourth round qualified for the World Cup. And now, the second-placed teams in the fourth round will compete for a place in the play-off.
The Asian teams that qualified for next yearâ€s competition in the third round of qualifying are Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Japan, and Australia. Qatar and Saudi Arabia qualified after topping their group in the fourth round.
The UAE and Iraq are the two teams that will compete for the one AFC spot in the intercontinental play-off.
Check Out: Teams Qualified For FIFA World Cup 2026
And lastly, we come to the Oceania Football Federation, or the OFC. This was the only federation that did not have a confirmed spot in the FIFA World Cup before. But now with the 48-team extended tournament, they have one direct spot into the World Cup, while one team will go into the intercontinental play-off.
Out of the 11 teams in this confederation, the four lowest teams competed in the first round for one spot in the second. The second round saw the remaining eight sides divided into two groups of four teams each. The first and second finishing teams from both groups went into the third round, where, in an elimination-style playoff, New Zealand booked their place for the World Cup, while New Caledonia found themselves in the intercontinental playoff.
As discussed before, 28 teams have already qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And now, we will tally all our qualifiers. From UEFA, only England has confirmed a place in the World Cup so far. CONMEBOL has seen Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay qualify. Canada, Mexico, and the US are the only teams from CONCACAF to have qualified, doing so as the hosts. Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, South Africa, the Ivory Coast, and Senegal have made it from CAF. Japan, Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have qualified from the AFC. New Zealand has the only direct qualification spot from the OFC.
Meanwhile, six teams will make it to the intercontinental play-off and will compete for two 2026 FIFA World Cup spots. So far, Bolivia from CONMEBOL and New Caledonia from the OFC are the only two teams to have confirmed a spot in these play-offs.
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