Participants of the 2026 World Cup: who is already going to the World Cup, and who will compete in the play-offs?

The qualifying round for the upcoming 2026 World Cup is entering the home stretch. Very soon we will find out the final composition of the participants in the grand tournament, which will be held at the stadiums of Canada, the USA and Mexico at the end of this year.

At the moment, 42 national teams have already secured tickets for this football festival. The fate of the remaining six tickets will be decided in the decisive final play-offs, scheduled for March 31.

The upcoming World Cup will be unique in its own way, as the tournament has been expanded to 48 teams. This innovation opened the door for many teams that will perform at competitions of this scale for the first time. Despite the fact that the draw for the group stage took place back in December and the squads of most of the groups are already known, the final picture will emerge only after the completion of the intercontinental play-offs and the UEFA playoffs in the coming days.

Below is an up-to-date list of teams that have already qualified for the 2026 World Cup. Debutant teams that will go to the World Cup for the first time in their history are marked with an asterisk (*).

 Teams that qualified for the 2026 World Cup

• Asia (AFC): Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan*, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan*.
• Africa (CAF): Algeria, Cape Verde*, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia.
• North and Central America (CONCACAF): Canada (host country), Mexico (host country), USA (host country), Panama, Haiti, Curaçao*.
• South America (CONMEBOL): Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay.
• Oceania (OFC): New Zealand.
• Europe (UEFA): England, France, Croatia, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Scotland.

Who will play in the play-offs of the 2026 World Cup?

In the next few days, the decisive playoff games will take place, following which six more teams will receive tickets to the 2026 World Cup: four winners of the UEFA qualifiers and two triumphants of the intercontinental play-offs. 22 national teams will fight for these coveted places.

UEFA (Europe) play-offs:

• Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Wales, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland.

Intercontinental play-offs:

• Bolivia (7th place in the CONMEBOL zone).
• DR Congo (winner of the 2nd round of the CAF zone).
• Iraq (winner of the 5th round of the AFC zone).
• Jamaica (the team with the highest ranking among the runners-up in the 3rd round of the CONCACAF zone).
• New Caledonia (2nd place in the 3rd round of the OFC zone).
• Suriname (the second highest-ranked team among the runners-up in the 3rd round of the CONCACAF zone).