The International Federation of Football "FIFA" announced today, Friday, that the draw for the 2026 World Cup playoff and the European qualifiers playoff will be held on November 20th at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
The Federation confirmed in a statement published on its official website that the draw will begin with the World Cup playoff, followed by the European playoff draw, to determine the seats of the participating teams in the 2026 World Cup finals in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which will see the participation of 48 teams. 28 teams have qualified for the tournament so far, while 14 other countries are preparing, three of them from the CONCACAF union, African and Asian teams, and New Caledonia, and 11 teams from the European Union to qualify through the continental qualifiers this month. In the FIFA playoff tournament, four unranked teams will play in the semi-finals, with two of them qualifying to face other ranked teams in the final, where the winners guarantee two seats in the finals. As for the European playoff, 12 teams from the group runners-up participate, in addition to the best four teams from the Nations League ranking, where the 16 teams will be distributed on four paths. The matches will be played on a single-elimination basis to determine the remaining four teams that will complete the contract of the participating teams from Europe in the finals of the tournament. This date comes only two days after the end of the international matches round in November 2025, which is expected to see the determination of more teams qualified for the World Cup finals.
