The 2026 FIFA World Cup is rapidly approaching, and the teams of the expanded tournament are falling into place. Several teams have already punched their ticket to the international competition, but there are plenty more spots left to go, especially in UEFA and CONCACAF.
2026 marks the first World Cup since FIFA expanded the tournament to 48 teams, adding 16 additional slots from the 2022 edition. As a result, there is even more space for teams from across the six confederations to secure their spot as the international tournament heads to North America.
The six confederations are given a set number of spots, with the amount changing based on the size and quality of the organizations. UEFA (Union of European Football Associations), the biggest and most competitive, is given 16 spots; CAF (Confederation of African Football) and AFC (Asian Football Confederation), while slightly smaller, are given nine and eight guaranteed spots, respectively. The two smaller confederations in the Americas, CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) and CONMEBOL (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol), are given six each, while tiny OFC (Oceania Football Confederation) is given one.
The final two spots in the World Cup will be determined with a Play-off Tournament. Six teams two CONCACAF teams and one team each from AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL and OFC competing will battle it out, with the winners of two bracket finals making it to the international tournament.
Follow along as the rest of the World Cup’s 48-team field is determined ahead of next summer.
As the three host countries, the U.S., Canada and Mexico all receive automatic qualifying bids for the 2026 World Cup. As a result, those three countries hold three of the confederation’s six qualifying spots, with CONCACAF also getting two spots in the play-off tournament.
Qualified: United States, Canada, Mexico
Spots remaining: Three direct qualifying spots, plus two play-off tournament spots
UEFA gets the most spots of any of the confederations, with 16 teams able to punch their ticket to the tournament. The European confederation’s qualifying tournament is ongoing, with some teams already securing their spot, and others to lock up a berth in the coming weeks.
For the first round of the qualifying tournament, the winners of each of the 12 group will automatically advance to the World Cup. The four remaining spots will be determined by a play-off tournament with the 12 runner-ups, plus the four highest-ranked teams in the UEFA Nations League.
England, which has so far won all seven matches of the qualifying tournament, officially punched its ticket after a 5-0 victory over Latvia on Oct. 14. France then followed, with a 4-0 win over Ukraine on Thursday, and Croatia joining in Friday.
Qualified: England, France, Croatia
Spots remaining: 14 direct qualifying spots, 10 of which will be determined by group winners in the coming weeks
The Asian Football Confederation, the federation that covers Eurasia as well as Asia, determined its qualifiers with a multi-round tournament in 2025 that continued into the fall.
Japan became the first non-host team to secure a spot back in March, followed by the rest of the field. Only one play-in spot remains, with countries like Indonesia, UAE, Iraq, Oman and China still in the running.
Qualified: Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan
Spots remaining: One play-off spot
An ongoing tournament whittled the CAF down from 53 nations to the nine qualifiers, with one play-off spot still to be determined. Morocco, after surging to a semifinals appearance in 2022, is back at the top of the conversation heading into 2026. As the CAF tournament reached an end point this fall, Morocco became the first African team to qualify in September, followed by Tunisia.
Qualified: Algeria, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia
Spots remaining: One play-off spot
Of all of the qualifying formats, CONMEBOL’s is the simplest: The confederation’s 10 teams competed in a league table, with the top six teams qualifying for the World Cup, and the seventh Bolivia, in this case representing CONMEBOL in the play-off tournament.
Argentina, the defending champions, were rolling early in the process, qualifying for 2026 all the way back in March. The rest of the field filled out by September.
Qualified: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay
Qualified for play-off spot: Bolivia
Spots remaining: None
The expanded format means that Oceania will get a guaranteed spot for the first time ever. It’s not much of a surprise that New Zealand by far the largest country in the confederation will be OFC’s representative at the World Cup, but it will be an exciting time for the country. New Zealand has qualified for the World Cup just two other times, even in the years since Australia left OFC to join AFC. New Caledonia, meanwhile, will join the play-off tournament, though a win there would be a significant upset, given that the nation sits at 150 in FIFA’s rankings, well below several of its likely competitors.
Qualified: New Zealand
Qualified for play-off spot: New Caledonia
Spots remaining: None