England: 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying info, format, fixtures & more

With England completing their latest Nations League campaign back in November – sealing promotion back to League A in the process – their next game will see them get their World Cup journey underway under the guidance of new boss Thomas Tuchel.

Thoughts will now turn to the qualifiers for the 2026 tournament, which are set to begin in March 2025. It is now less than 18 months before the next edition of the quadrennial tournament, yet some confederations are already midway through their qualification process.

Following December’s qualifying phase draw, teams can start to navigate a path to attending North American World Cup since 1994.

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UEFA World Cup qualifying draw info

Teams have been drawn into 12 groups of four or five teams, playing each other home and away. Teams drawn in one of the four five-team groups will start qualifying in March, while teams drawn in one of the six four-team groups will start their campaigns in September. All groups conclude in November 2025.

England have been drawn into Group K, with Thomas Tuchel’s first assignments as England boss being home clashes against Albania and Latvia.

The 12 group winners will secure a place at the 2026 World Cup, with the four remaining UEFA spots claimed by the winners of the play-offs involving the 12 runners-up.

UEFA World Cup qualifying play-offs

The runners-up from each of the 12 qualifying groups will secure a spot in the play-offs, along with the four best-ranked group winners of the 2024/25 Nations League that did not finish either first or second in their qualifying group.

These 16 teams will be drawn into four play-off paths, with four teams in each route. The semi-finals will be played over a single leg, followed by a single-leg final during the same international window in March 2026, just months before the start of the World Cup.

UEFA World Cup qualifying fixture dates

The group stages of the qualifiers will run between March and November 2025. The play-off fixtures will take place between 26th and 31st March 2026. As for the tournament itself, it will begin on 11th June, with the final taking place on 19th July 2026.

World Cup 2026 format

After seven successive tournaments with 32 participants, from 2026 onwards, there will be a total of 48 countries battling it out to take home the World Cup trophy.

This means each confederation gets more places at the final tournament. UEFA now gets 16 spots, CAF now gets nine spots (up from five) and AFC nations get eight spots rather than the 4.5 they enjoyed previously.

Elsewhere, CONCACAF teams will have six spots, with three going to the hosts USA, Canada and Mexico. CONMEBOL now has six spots, (up from 4.5), while OFC now has a guaranteed spot, rather than the 0.5 they previously had on offer.

With an expanded competition comes a slight change in format. 48 teams will be split into 12 groups of four teams.

The top two in each group will qualify for the knockout stages, as well as the eight best third-placed teams, thus creating a round of 32.

From then on, there will be a straight knockout tournament to see who will be crowned the winner at the MetLife Stadium, which is situated just west of New York City.

The full list of venues and their capacity can be found in the table below, with the tournament returning to North America for the first time since 1994.

The 1994 World Cup in the United States was the final World Cup that featured 24 teams, while the next one in the US will be the debut of a 48-team competition.

Before all that, however, the UEFA qualifiers will see who from Europe will make it across the pond in 18 months.

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