Determining 42 teams that have qualified for the 2026 World Cup

(Dan Tri) - After the matches last night and this morning, FIFA has determined the 42 teams participating in the 2026 World Cup. The remaining 6 wildcard tickets will be determined in March next year.

42 teams soon have tickets to attend World Cup 2026

CONCACAF (6 teams): USA, Mexico, Canada (host), Haiti, Curacao, Panama

Asia (8 teams): Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar

South America (6 teams): Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay

Europe (12 teams): England, France, Croatia, Norway, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, Spain, Austria, Belgium.

Oceania (1 team): New Zealand

Africa (9 teams): Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Cape Verde, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana

The 2026 World Cup qualifying round in Europe last night saw many exciting developments. Scotland won their ticket in a spectacular way. Before the final match, this team was 1 point behind Denmark so they had to win to take the lead in the group.

Scotland celebrates their ticket to the 2026 World Cup (Photo: Getty).

Up until the 90+3 minute, Denmark were still on track with a 2-2 draw against Scotland. However, two consecutive goals in the injury time from Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean gave Scotland a 4-2 win.

Thus, Scotland has officially got a ticket to attend the World Cup for the first time since 1998. Similarly, Austria also returned to the World Cup since 1998. In the decisive match, coach Rangnick's team successfully held Bosnia to a 1-1 draw to complete the task.

Also in last night's series of matches, Europe has three more places to attend the 2026 World Cup belonging to Switzerland, Spain and Belgium.

This morning, the final round of the CONCACAF (North America and Caribbean) World Cup 2026 qualifiers also took place in an exciting manner. Curacao completed the task by holding Jamaica to a 0-0 draw.

Thanks to that, this team has a ticket to attend the World Cup for the first time in history. They also set a record when they became the smallest country/territory to participate in the most attractive football tournament on the planet with an area of ​​only 444km2.

Meanwhile, Suriname “dropped the gold” in the last match when they lost 1-3 to Guatemala. Panama took advantage of the group leader’s stumble to rise and win a ticket to the 2026 World Cup after winning against El Salvador.

Haiti is the third team from CONCACAF to qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup. They took advantage of the fact that group leaders Honduras were held to a 0-0 draw by Costa Rica to advance. A 2-0 win over Nicaragua secured Haiti's place in the World Cup. This is the second time in history that Haiti has played in the world's top football tournament, after the 1974 tournament.

Curacao (blue shirt) becomes the smallest country/territory to participate in the World Cup (Photo: Getty).

As of November 19, FIFA has determined the 42 teams participating in the 2026 World Cup: the US, Canada, Mexico (host), Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Senegal, Ivory Coast (Africa), Japan, Iran, Australia, Jordan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (Asia), New Zealand (Oceania), Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay (South America), England, France, Croatia, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Scotland, Spain, Austria, Belgium (Europe), Haiti, Panama, Curacao (CONCACAF).

In addition to the 42 direct tickets to the World Cup, the remaining 6 spots will be determined through the play-off round in March next year.

Specifically, 16 European teams will participate in the play-off round to choose 4 places. Among them are 12 second-placed teams: Slovakia, Kosovo, Denmark, Ukraine, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Bosnia, Italy, Wales, Albania and Czech Republic. In addition, there are 4 teams participating through the UEFA Nations League: North Macedonia, Sweden, Romania and Northern Ireland.

The European play-off seeding results are as follows:

Group 1: Italy, Denmark, Türkiye, Ukraine

Group 2: Poland, Wales, Czech Republic, Slovakia

Group 3: Republic of Ireland, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo

Group 4: Sweden, Romania, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland

The remaining 6 teams are Iraq (Asia), Democratic Republic of Congo (Africa), Jamaica, Suriname (CONCACAF), Bolivia (South America), New Caledonia (Oceania) will compete to determine 2 spots to attend the 2026 World Cup.

FIFA will conduct the draw to select the matches on November 20. In which, the two teams with the highest FIFA rankings, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo, will automatically enter the final (only play 1 play-off match). The remaining teams must compete from the semi-finals (must play 2 play-off matches).

The 2026 World Cup will have a total of 48 participating teams, of which Asia has 8 direct slots and 1 play-in slot; Europe has 16 slots; Africa has 9 direct slots and 1 play-in slot; South America has 6 direct slots and 1 play-in slot; North, Central and South America and the Caribbean have 6 direct slots (including 3 co-host teams USA, Canada, Mexico) and 2 play-in slots; Oceania has 1 direct slot and 1 play-in slot.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/xac-dinh-42-doi-bong-gianh-ve-tham-du-world-cup-2026-20251119103540588.htm