{"id":192725,"date":"2025-12-07T07:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/explaining-european-fifa-playoff-spots-still-remaining-for-2026-world-cup-qualifying-the-athletic-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T07:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:50:13","slug":"explaining-european-fifa-playoff-spots-still-remaining-for-2026-world-cup-qualifying-the-athletic-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/explaining-european-fifa-playoff-spots-still-remaining-for-2026-world-cup-qualifying-the-athletic-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Explaining European, FIFA playoff spots still remaining for 2026 World Cup qualifying – The Athletic – The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Cup
2026 World
Cup Draw
The draw is complete, but not all World Cup teams are known Jess Rapfogel\/Getty Images<\/span>
Follow live coverage of today\u2019s 2026 World Cup schedule announcement.<\/span><\/em><\/a>
The draw for the first 48-team World Cup<\/a> has taken place \u2014 but we still do not know exactly who is competing.
Six spaces in the group phase of the tournament, being co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico, have yet to be filled, with 22 teams still hoping to achieve qualification through the playoffs.
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That means half of the 12 groups<\/a> \u2014 including every one containing a host country \u2014 cannot yet finalise their plans for the competition.
The 22 teams who could still make it are: Jamaica, New Caledonia, Congo DR, Bolivia, Suriname, Iraq, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Albania, Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey, Romania, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, North Macedonia.
So, who will be involved in them and when will qualification for the tournament be finalised?
Six teams will contest March\u2019s inter-confederation playoffs, with two progressing in what is a last chance for those who missed out on direct qualification.
Jamaica face New Caledonia in the Confederation playoff semifinals (called FIFA Playoff 1 in the draw), with the victors facing the seeded Congo DR for a place at the World Cup. On the other side of the draw, Bolivia take on Suriname for the chance to meet Iraq in the other final (FIFA Playoff 2).
In UEFA\u2019s playoffs, for European teams, 16 sides are competing for four places. These playoffs are divided into four paths, labelled A-D, and organized as follows<\/a>:
Path A<\/strong>
Semi-final 1: Italy vs Northern Ireland
Semi-final 2: Wales vs Bosnia and Herzegovina
Final: Wales\/Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Italy\/Northern Ireland
Path B<\/strong>
Semi-final 3: Ukraine vs Sweden
Semi-final 4: Poland vs Albania
Final: Ukraine\/Sweden vs Poland\/Albania
Path C<\/strong>
Semi-final 5: Turkey vs Romania
Semi-final 6: Slovakia vs Kosovo
Final: Slovakia\/Kosovo vs Turkey\/Romania
Path D<\/strong>
Semi-final 7: Denmark vs North Macedonia
Semi-final 8: Czech Republic vs Republic of Ireland
Final: Czech Republic\/Republic of Ireland vs Denmark\/North Macedonia
All playoff teams were placed into pot four at the draw, meaning they were among the lowest-ranked teams and therefore drawn against higher-ranked opponents.
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The winner of UEFA Playoff A will be placed in Group B alongside co-hosts Canada, Qatar and Switzerland; the UEFA Playoff B winner is in with Netherlands, Japan and Tunisia; UEFA Playoff C\u2019s winner faces USA, Paraguay and Australia; and the winner of UEFA Playoff D goes with Mexico, South Africa and South Korea.
The winner of FIFA Playoff 1 will be placed in Group K with Portugal, Uzbekistan and Colombia. The winner of FIFA Playoff 2 will be in the tough-looking Group I, alongside France, Senegal and Norway.
The semi-finals for both the UEFA and FIFA confederation playoffs take place on Tuesday, March 26, while the finals will be played the following week on Tuesday, March 31.
Once those fixtures are concluded, all qualified teams for the 2026 World Cup will be confirmed.
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Eduardo Tansley<\/a><\/strong> is an Explainer Journalist for The Athletic. He completed his postgraduate in Sports Journalism from St Mary’s University, Twickenham<\/span> <\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Cup2026 WorldCup DrawThe draw is complete, but not all World Cup teams are known Jess Rapfogel\/Getty ImagesFollow live coverage of today\u2019s 2026 World Cup schedule announcement.The draw for the first 48-team World Cup has taken place \u2014 but we still do not know exactly who is competing.Six spaces in the group phase of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":192726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}