2026 World Cup play-offs: draw date, time and format 🗓️ | OneFootball

With the conclusion of the qualifiers in all confederations, the 42 teams qualified for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, the United States, and Canada are now known. Now, only the six teams that will arrive through the playoffs remain to be decided.

Next Thursday, November 20, starting at 9 a.m. Argentina time, at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, the draw for these playoffs will take place. There, both the UEFA playoff bracket, which features 16 teams, and the rest of the world bracket, with six participating teams, will be determined.

The European Playoff

As in recent years, UEFA will have its own playoff. It features 16 teams as protagonists, and only four of them will be able to qualify for the World Cup. Among the most important countries participating are Italy, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden.

The format will be straightforward. The 16 teams will be divided into four brackets, each functioning as a mini knockout tournament. Each bracket will consist of a semifinal and a final, both played as single matches, with the winner of each “mini-tournament” earning their ticket to the 2026 World Cup.

In this context, the pairings play a fundamental role in the equation. The draw will be divided into four pots according to the FIFA Ranking, with teams from pot 1 facing those in pot 4, and those from pot 2 facing those in pot 3.

All UEFA Teams Qualified for the Playoff

The Rest of the World Playoff

With six participating teams—one from CONMEBOL, one from Asia, one from Africa, one from Oceania, and two from CONCACAF—the rest of the world playoff will be simpler. It will be divided into two subgroups of three, and the two highest-ranked teams will advance directly to a final.

The four lowest-ranked teams according to the FIFA ranking (Bolivia, Jamaica, New Caledonia, and Suriname) will face each other by draw in two semifinals, and the winners of these matches will go to the final against Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who are the two highest-ranked teams.

The two winners of these finals will enter pot four of the 2026 World Cup draw, while the losers will be eliminated from the tournament.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.