The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification decided the 45 teams that joined hosts Canada, Mexico, and the United States at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Qualification began on 7 September 2023 with three matches of the CONMEBOL zone played that day. The first goal of the qualification series was scored by Colombian player Rafael Santos Borré against Venezuela.
Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan all qualified for the first time, with Curaçao becoming the smallest nation to ever qualify, while Qatar had their first successful qualifying campaign after making their debut in the previous edition as hosts.
On 30 March 2017, the Bureau of the FIFA Council (composed of the FIFA president and the presidents of each of the six confederations) proposed a slot allocation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The recommendation was submitted for the ratification by the FIFA Council.
On 9 May 2017, two days before the 67th FIFA Congress, the FIFA Council approved the slot allocation in a meeting in Manama, Bahrain. This included an intercontinental play-off tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup spots.
The ratification of slot allocation also gave the OFC a guaranteed berth in the final tournament for the first time in FIFA World Cup history; as such, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the first tournament in which all six confederations have at least one guaranteed berth.
On 9 May 2017, the FIFA Council approved the slot allocation scheme for the new 48-team final format.
Russia were suspended indefinitely on 28 February 2022 from participating in UEFA and FIFA competitions for the country's invasion of Ukraine. A circular distributed by UEFA on 11 November 2024 stated 192 group stage matches would take place, confirming Russia's exclusion from the tournament.
Sri Lanka were suspended in January 2023 for an unspecified reason, and they did not appear in the draw information the AFC released in early July. However, they were re-added with the condition that their federation would hold elections at least ten days before qualification would begin.
Eritrea withdrew from qualification on 10 November 2023, prior to playing any matches, having concerns that players would seek political asylum if allowed to travel overseas.
Congo were suspended on 6 February 2025 for government interference in Congolese Football Federation operations. No announcement regarding their status was immediately available, and CAF initially cancelled their remaining matches. The suspension was lifted by FIFA on 14 May 2025, and Tanzania and Zambia were awarded 3âÂÂ0 victories by forfeit.
Each confederation was responsible for its own qualification tournament, which consisted of at least one round of competition using the following formats (Regulations Article 11.3):
In the round-robin and tournament formats, the tiebreaker criteria were as follows (Regulations Article 11.5):
Should two or more teams still have equal rank after criteria 1âÂÂ3 were applied, then the following criteria were used:
If the tournament were held in a single host nation or in neutral territory, then criterion 7 would not be applied (Regulations Article 11.6).
In the home-and-away knockout format, the team scoring more goals on aggregate won the tie and advanced. If the aggregate score were level, then 30 minutes of extra time would be played. If the score were still level at the end of extra time, the away goals rule would not be applied and the winners would be decided by a penalty shoot-out (Regulations Article 11.9). In the knockout format, the team scoring more goals in a single match wins and advances. If the teams were tied after regulation, then extra time was played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the score was still level (Regulations Article 11.10).
On 1 August 2022, the Asian Football Confederation Executive Committee approved the qualification format for Asia's road to the 2026 World Cup, as well as the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, in preparation for the eight direct spots and the single intercontinental slot allocated to the AFC by FIFA following the expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 48 teams. The draw for the first round was held on 27 July 2023 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The draw for the second round took place two hours later.
The qualification structure was as follows:
The winner advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.
The CAF Executive Committee announced a new African qualification format on 19 May 2023. The draw was held on 13 July 2023 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. All 54 FIFA-affiliated football associations from CAF entered qualification. Eritrea withdrew before matches began due to fears that players would seek political asylum abroad.
The qualification structure was as follows:
Due to Eritrea's withdrawal from qualification resulting in differing group sizes, results from matches against sixth-place teams were discounted when ranking group runners-up.
The teams were allocated into semi-finals based on their FIFA Men's World Ranking of 17 October 2025, with the highest-ranked side taking on the lowest and the second-highest taking on the third-highest.
The winner advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Three teams in CONCACAFâÂÂCanada, Mexico and the United StatesâÂÂautomatically qualified as host nations. On 28 February 2023, CONCACAF announced the qualifying format for 2026 World Cup qualification.
On 22 August 2022, CONMEBOL petitioned FIFA to keep the qualification format which had been used since the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification, where all CONMEBOL members play matches against each other. This was approved, with the first games of the qualifiers played in September 2023.
Before the qualification competition began, Ecuador were penalized 3 points for using falsified birth documents for Byron Castillo in the previous World Cup qualification cycle.
The 2026 World Cup marked the first time OFC was granted one guaranteed slot, as well as a possible second slot via the inter-confederation play-offs.
The qualification structure was as follows:
The winner qualified for the World Cup, while the runner-up advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.
The UEFA Executive Committee announced a new European qualification format on 25 January 2023. Teams were drawn into twelve groups of four or five teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches from March to November 2025. The group winners qualified for the World Cup, while the will participate in matches, for a total of 16 teams qualifying for the finals.
The qualification draw took place on 13 December 2024 in Zürich, Switzerland. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia's national team was suspended, and their exclusion was confirmed in a circular distributed by UEFA on 11 November 2024.
The winners of each path qualified for the World Cup.
Path A
Path B
Path C
Path D
A play-off tournament involving six teams â one each from AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL, and OFC and two from CONCACAF â was held to decide two FIFA World Cup berths. The bottom four teams in the November 2025 FIFA World Rankings were drawn into two matches. The winners of those matches advanced to play the top two teams in a further round of matches, and the winners qualified for the World Cup. The play-offs were held in March 2026 in Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico.
Below are goalscorer lists for all confederations and the inter-confederation play-offs: