In a sport where a single match can be the difference between life and death, international qualifiers are perhaps the most high-stakes matches in world football. While the final tournament line-up isn’t yet clear – and won’t be until over a year from now – the qualifiers have already begun around the world.
As the Independent explains, each of FIFA’s six confederations determines how they want to fill their fixed number of slots at the final event. Each zone has teams competing against each other for those berths, and the top two from each continent – along with winners of inter-confederation play-offs – qualify for the finals.
All nations that have a recognised national federation are eligible to compete in international qualifiers, which means places like Gibraltar and New Caledonia can field teams. But some of them don’t – for various reasons, usually linked to political instability in their home country.
The qualification process for the 2026 finals is a complicated one, especially in Oceania. After a first phase that saw 54 FIFA-affiliated sides split into nine groups of five or six teams who played home-and-away games in a hexa-format, the top two in each group qualified for the World Cup. The runners-up in each group then entered a second round, which featured New Zealand and the seven top-ranked OFC nations playing a pair of three-match knockout rounds (two semis and a final) in October and November 2024. Winners New Zealand and runner-up New Caledonia have qualified for the finals, while the four other OFC nations will take part in an inter-confederation playoff to decide the last two berths.