Published On 17/11/2025
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Last update: 16:21 (Mecca time)
16 teams from the European continent are scheduled to participate in a final play-off in March of next year, in order to secure a qualification ticket to the 2026 World Cup finals.
The second-placed teams in the 12 groups qualify for the European playoff, in addition to the top 4 leaders of the European Nations League groups who failed to occupy one of the first two places. They will all compete for the remaining 4 tickets to the Old Continent.
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The draw for both the European and global playoffs will take place next Thursday, November 20, at the headquarters of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in the Swiss city of Zurich.
✍️ Few details on the UEFA Play-offs…
✅ 16 nations will enter the Play-offs
📊 4 nations will be placed in each pot💥 4 Paths with 2 Semifinals + 1 Final
🏟️ SF: Pot 1 host Pot 4, Pot 2 host Pot 3
📈 Winners of these SF into the Finals🏡 Draw will determine Hosts of Finals… pic.twitter.com/iBsyciBhce
— Football Rankings (@FootRankings) November 16, 2025
European play-off draw system
The 16 teams that qualified for the playoff will be divided into 4 pots, with the 12 teams that finished the qualifiers in second place in the first three pots according to their ranking in the FIFA classification, while the teams participating in the playoff will be placed according to their ranking in the Nations League in the fourth pot.
Then, one team will be drawn from each pot, forming four separate tracks – Track A (A), Track B (B), Track C (C), and Track D (D).
In each track, a team from the first pot faces a competitor from the fourth pot in a single-match semi-final, while the teams from the second and third pots meet in the other semi-final.
The teams of the first pot and the second pot will play the semi-final matches on their home soil, with the draw determining the identity of the final host.
As a clarification, the two winners in the semi-finals of the first track will meet in the final match, with the victor among them qualifying directly to the finals, and the same applies to the rest of the tracks.
The date of the European playoff matches for the 2026 World Cup
The two rounds of European play-off matches crucial to the final places in the World Cup will be played during the next international break, in March 2026.
The semi-final matches are scheduled to be held on March 26, 2026, with the final matches taking place after 5 days at the latest, according to what the BBC reported.
Countries nominated to host the semi-final and final matches must identify and confirm their stadiums no later than December 19, 2025.
Teams participating in the European play-off
Until this moment, 8 European teams have secured their participation in the playoffs, namely Ukraine, Ireland, Italy, Albania and the Czech Republic, which secured second place in groups four, six, nine, 11 and 12, respectively.
In addition, Romania, Sweden and Northern Ireland qualified by occupying the best positions in the Nations League.
The quorum of the 16 teams is scheduled to be completed after the official end of the European qualifiers tomorrow, Tuesday.
Global Supplement
It is necessary to point out that there is another global playoff in parallel with the European playoff, in which six teams from different continents compete in order to obtain the last two places in the World Cup.
It is known that the teams that will participate in this playoff are: Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and New Caledonia, all three of whom are waiting for two teams from CONCACAF and another from Asia (the Emirates or Iraq).