How to watch the UEFA qualifiers draw for the 2026 World Cup, plus seeding pots and more
Ariane Hingst, Robert Pires and Gianluca Zambrotta will help set the 2026 World Cup qualifiers for Europe, as the continent gears up for the tournament which take place in North America in just under two years time.
The qualifiers kick off in spring 2025 and will feature some of the best international teams in the world, boasting no shortage of the greatest stars in the game.
So when is the draw and how can you watch it? GOAL brings you everything you need to know
The draw for the European qualification phase for the 2026 World Cup will be held on Friday December 13, 2024. It will take place at FIFA headquarters in Zurich and proceedings are scheduled to get started at 11am GMT (6am ET).
KEY: WNR = Winner of the Nations League quarter-final tie | DFT = Defeated team in the Nations League quarter-final tie
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Fans of England, Italy, Spain and indeed soccer fans across the world will be able to watch the draw live on FIFA's official website, fifa.com.
The draw will also be available to stream live on FIFA+ and its official YouTube channel. It will be broadcast by FIFA's various television and streaming partners across the globe, a selection of which you can see below.
In the United States, FOX Sports, Telemundo and Univision are the official World Cup broadcast partners and you can tune in to those channels with a fubo subscription.
Teams are divided into five pots: four groups of 12 and one group of six. They will be drawn into 12 groups: six four-team groups and six five-team groups.
Teams from the same pot cannot be drawn together, so England cannot be paired with Germany (Pot 1), for example, but they can potentially draw Wales (Pot 2) or the Republic of Ireland (Pot 3).
The UEFA qualification phase for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico begins in March 2025 and concludes in November 2025.
Five-team groups start the campaign in March, while four-team groups begin in September. Fixture dates will be confirmed after the draw is finalised.
The play-offs will be played on March 26 and 31 2026.
The 2024-25 UEFA Nations League is tied to the UEFA qualification for the 2026 World Cup, with the four best-ranked group winners from that tournament – who do not finish first or second in their World Cup qualification group – going into the play-off round along with the 12 runners-up from the qualification groups.
Those 16 teams are then divided into four play-off paths of four teams, with single-leg semi-finals followed by winner-takes-all finals.
Prior to that, the make-up of the groups will be finalised depending on the outcome of the Nations League quarter-finals, as noted above.
