(Photo Credit Harold Cunningham FIFA)
The Oceania Football Confederation’s (OFC) 11 members will discover the start of the road that could lead to them being one of the 48 teams at the most inclusive FIFA World Cup ever when their preliminary qualifying draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026 ™ takes place on Thursday in Zurich.
For the first time an Oceania team is guaranteed direct qualification to the FIFA Men’s World Cup, with the runner-up to progress to the FIFA Intercontinental Play-off Tournament. Victory in this tournament would give Oceania an historic second FIFA World Cup representative in Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026.
France’s FIFA World Cup 1998 ™ winner and FIFA Legend Christian Karembeu, who was born in New Caledonia, will assist Dame Sarai Bareman, FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer, with the draw held at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland, at 9am CEST (7am GMT/7pm NZST). The draw can be watched live HERE on FIFA +.
Based on the men’s FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking of July 2024, the four lowest-ranked teams – Samoa, Cook Islands, American Samoa and Tonga – will compete in round one’s knockout match format (7-10 September) in Samoa to decide which of the quartet joins the seven highest-ranked sides in the second round.
The draw will see those eight countries split across three pots. They will then be drawn into two groups of four, beginning with Pot 3 working and through to Pot 1.
Each country will play every opponent in the group once in matches staged in October and November 2024, with the top two teams from each group progressing to round three.
In March 2025, the four teams will meet in semi-final ties (Group A winners vs Group B runners-up, Group B winners vs Group A runners-up). The victors of those matches will then go head-to-head for the first-ever guaranteed ticket to a FIFA World Cup for an OFC nation.
Pot allocations for the second preliminary round draw
Pot 1
New Zealand
Solomon Islands
Pot 2
Fiji
Tahiti
New Caledonia
Vanuatu
Pot 3
Papua New Guinea
Winner round one
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