FIFA World Cup 2026: All you need to know – qualifying teams, format, draw

media answers all the key questions around the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The picture for the FIFA World Cup 2026 is nearing completion, as 42 teams have now qualified for the 48-team tournament.

Some European heavyweights booked their spots during this November international break – including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain – alongside some minnows of world football.

Tiny Caribbean island country Curacao will go to the 2026 World Cup as the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the marquee event in men’s football, after a 0-0 draw in Jamaica on Tuesday saw them finish top of a four-team group.

Curacao will be joined by Panama and Haiti, which also booked their World Cup spots on Tuesday, from the region.

Meanwhile, Scotland have qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1998 after a wild 4-2 victory over Denmark.

The remaining six spots will be filled by teams playing in intercontinental and UEFA playoffs.

media Sport takes a look at the next edition of the world’s marquee football tournament.

The tournament is being staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The first match will be played in Mexico City on June 11, while the final will be staged in New Jersey, the US, on July 19.

Due to the expansion of the tournament – from 32 teams to 48 – the 39-day event is the longest in its history.

FIFA’s intercontinental playoffs will be the last chance saloon for teams around the world to reach next year’s event. The finale of that route will be on March 31, 2026, less than three months before the World Cup kicks off.

The European qualification process runs until March, but most of the remaining confederations will have finished their continental qualification processes long before then.

Once the respective confederations finish their qualification process, FIFA offers two final spots to be contested by the best-placed team from each of the six continental routes that have not already qualified.

Although we will not know the full list of teams for the event until the end of March 2026, the draw will take place on December 5, 2025.

The draw will take place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in the United States. US President Donald Trump confirmed the location while speaking in the Oval Office at the White House, flanked by Vice President JD Vance and FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. He did not rule out overseeing the draw itself.