The road to the 2026 World Cup is under way, and seven countries have already booked berths for this year’s expanded 48-team tournament in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Qualifying began back in September 2023, and sides are now 14 matches into a marathon campaign that will culminate in November 2025.
A 2-0 defeat for Venezuela (seventh, 15 points) in Uruguay (4th, 24 points) on Tuesday opened the door for two nations to qualify. The result removed much of the jeopardy over spots 3-6 and allowed Brazil (third, 25 points) and Ecuador (2nd, 25 points) to punch their tickets. The seventh-place finisher goes into inter-confederation playoffs, and the bottom six remain in contention to qualify for a second chance.
In Europe, all group winners are guaranteed a place at the World Cup and 12 teams advance to the next stage, which is where UEFA will pick up one spot. The other four berths are decided in play-offs, with the two best runners-up from each of the five confederations qualifying directly for the tournament. The remaining berths are split between the host nation and a choice of nations from Africa, Asia, North/Central America and Oceania. This is the first time that the last two berths in the World Cup will be determined via intercontinental play-offs. The details are a bit complicated, but the basic idea is that each of the four lower-ranked nations will face another of the higher-ranked groups in two semifinals, then the top two teams from each match advance to the final round to play a single-leg match.