The 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada, is taking shape. After Monday’s game, 34 of the 48 participating teams have already been identified.
The remaining 14 spots are yet to be determined and will be decided based on games to be played in the coming weeks and the remaining play-offs. Of those 14 games, eight will be won directly and six will be won through a series of play-offs with a difficult knockout round in between.
England captain Harry Kane never tires and dreams of a World Cup
qualified team
In addition to the three host countries, seven teams from Europe, six from South America, eight from Asia, one from Oceania and nine from Africa have already qualified for the next World Cup. A total of 34 participants have been selected. This includes three debutants from Jordan, Uzbekistan and Cape Verde.
Get pending location directly
Of the 14 spots yet to be determined, eight will be direct. Five more spots will be decided in Europe on Tuesday. Barring a miracle from their opponents, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium have already qualified, while Denmark and Scotland and Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina will face off in two head-to-head matches.
Three spots to directly qualify for the World Cup will be contested in Concacaf. Suriname, Panama, Jamaica, Curacao, Honduras, Haiti, and Costa Rica are the teams that will have a chance in the final round. From there, as I said, there are three direct qualifications to the World Cup and two qualifications to the international playoffs.
Pending standings in playoffs
And of the 14 pending positions, if 8 are direct, the remaining 6 will go through an exciting playoff. Ten of the 16 squads for the European play-offs have already been decided, with four direct berths – Slovakia, Ukraine, Ireland, Poland, Italy, Albania, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden and Northern Ireland (the final three via the Nations League) – already waiting for their rivals to face off in the one-shot knockout rounds on March 26th and 31st.
There are also multiple participants in the international playoffs, where two more spots will be decided. Bolivia (CONMEBOL), Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa), New Caledonia (Oceania), Iraq or the United Arab Emirates (Asia), and two teams from CONCACAF (to be determined) will participate.
The unprecedented 48-team World Cup is already starting to take shape. There are surprises on every continent, allowing modest and inexperienced teams to experience for a few weeks what it feels like to play in the most important tournament in the world of football.
