World Cup 2026: What to know about the playoffs for next year’s tournament

ZURICH Switzerland AP The final six places for the World Cup will be determined by two playoff tournaments in March Four more teams will qualify from Europe along with two from the rest of the world The UEFA playoffs will consist of nations while FIFA s intercontinental playoffs feature six Related Articles Spain Belgium Switzerland Scotland and Austria secure automatic World Cup spots in Europe Germany and Netherlands reach the World Cup after big wins in final qualifiers President Donald Trump unveils FIFA Pass to help World Cup travelers get their visas faster Cristiano Ronaldo set for record th World Cup Erling Haaland and Norway qualify Croatia qualifies for World Cup by beating Faroe Islands and Netherlands move closer The fruitful teams will join the other nations to have qualified for the World Cup in the United States Canada and Mexico which runs through June and July Here s what to know about the playoffs European playoffs Twelve runners up from the European qualifying groups advanced to the playoffs Four more teams advanced as the highest-ranked group winners from the UEFA Nations League which did not place in the top two of their European qualifying group Group runners-up Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Czech Republic Denmark Italy Kosovo Poland Ireland Slovakia Turkey Ukraine Wales Nations League group winners Romania Sweden Northern Ireland North Macedonia Teams will be placed in a seeded draw from four pots based on the FIFA ranking position of the runners-up The top eight teams will be seeded The bottom four along with the Nations League qualifiers will be unseeded The four top-seeded teams in Pot will be guaranteed semifinals against the Nations League qualifiers There will be eight semifinals in total with seeded teams drawn at home Seeded teams Pot Italy Denmark Turkey Ukraine Pot Poland Wales Czech Republic Slovakia The winners of the semifinals advance to four finals to determine the teams that qualify for the World Cup The semifinals will be played Mar and the finals will be Mar Intercontinental playoffs The intercontinental playoff tournament will bring together six teams from around the world vying for two qualifying places Two teams from CONCACAF and one each from Asia Africa South America and Oceania will compete Playoff teams AFC Iraq CAF Congo CONCACAF Jamaica Suriname CONMEBOL Bolivia OFC New Caledonia The two highest-ranked teams Iraq and Congo are seeded and automatically advance to one of two playoff finals The four lowest-ranked teams are unseeded and will be drawn to play in two semifinals with the winners advancing to one of the two playoff finals The two winning teams from the finals qualify for the World Cup The international playoffs will be held between Mar - World Cup draw The draw for the World Cup will be held in Washington DC on Dec before the teams advancing via the playoffs have been established The World Cup kicks off June and the final is scheduled for July James Robson is at https x com jamesalanrobson AP soccer https apnews com hub soccer