Fifa reveals allocation for 48-team 2026 World Cup

[anointed]

World Cup 2026: Fifa reveals allocation for 48-team tournament
10 minutes ago From the section Football 74
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Fifa is proposing a six-nation play-off tournament to decide the last two slots at the 48-team World Cup in 2026.

Football's world governing body has revealed its plans for how the 48 places will be allocated, with 16 Europeans teams set to qualify.

The proposals - approved by Fifa's president and his counterparts at the six confederations - are expected to be ratified by the Fifa Council on 9 May.

Fifa members voted in January to expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams.

How have the slots been allocated?

All six confederations will have at least one team in the expanded tournament, with no inter-confederation play-offs prior to the play-off tournament.

The World Cup hosts will still qualify automatically, with their slot taken from their confederation's quota.

The recommended places for each confederation are:

Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)
North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4)
Oceania - 1 (up from 0 or 1)
South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5)
How will the play-off tournament work?

The proposed tournament will consist of one team from each confederation except Uefa, with the final team taken from the confederation of the host country.

Two teams will be seeded based on their Fifa ranking, and then face the winners of two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams, with the prize a place in the World Cup.

The play-off will be played in the World Cup's host country, with November 2025 suggested as a possible date for the 2026 qualifying play-off.

It will also double as a test event for the main tournament.

Analysis

BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent Richard Conway

Uefa has achieved its stated aim of 16 slots. Its president, Aleksander Ceferin, made it clear that would be his demand in return for supporting an expanded tournament.

Ratification will be straightforward given the heads of the confederations have carved this up between them.

The play-off tournament is a new idea. It may sound the death knell for the Confederations Cup given Fifa has described the new tournament as a test event.

Fifa is keen to expand the Club World Cup as a summer tournament, and moving the qualifying tournament to November may create the necessary space in an already packed schedule.

There are significant issues still to be resolved in qualification processes though. Conmebol (South America) has been granted six slots. Given there are only 10 countries in the confederation, questions have been raised over how to make qualification an attractive proposition to broadcasters etc, given the ease with which some countries will qualify.
http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/39448474

[Enugu II]

So essentially, UEFA has the ability to provide 17 teams to a World tournament of 48 teams. Na real wa!

[danfo driver]

Hmmm.. I thought they wanted assimilation and equality? Thats why they said the world should bend over and be fuckkkked so that European league can continue to thrive?

[Enugu II]

Report below provides a clearer read:

Media Release
Bureau of the Council recommends slot allocation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™
(FIFA.com) 30 Mar 2017
http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2 ... 78254.html

The Bureau of the FIFA Council – comprised of the FIFA President and the presidents of each of the six confederations – convened this Thursday at the Home of FIFA in Zurich and agreed on a proposed slot allocation for the FIFA World Cup™ as of the 2026 edition.

The recommendation will now be submitted for the ratification of the FIFA Council, whose next meeting is scheduled for 9 May in Manama, Bahrain, two days prior to the 67th FIFA Congress.

After 10 January, when the FIFA Council unanimously decided on expanding the FIFA World Cup to a 48-team competition, FIFA, the confederations and the Member Associations engaged in a consultation process, which resulted in the proposal recommended by the Bureau of the Council. According to this proposal, the split of direct berths is as follows:

Slot allocation*

· AFC: 8 direct slots

· CAF: 9 direct slots

· CONCACAF: 6 direct slots

· CONMEBOL: 6 direct slots

· OFC: 1 direct slot

· UEFA: 16 direct slots

* The host country would also automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and its slot would be taken from the quota of its confederation. In the event of co-hosting, the number of host countries to qualify automatically would be decided by the FIFA Council.

Play-off tournament for two remaining slots
The above allocation accounts for 46 of the 48 participating teams. The proposal reviewed by the Bureau of the Council includes a play-off tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup berths:

- One team per confederation with the exception of UEFA + one additional team from the confederation of the host country;

- Two teams to be seeded based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams;

- Tournament to be played in the host country(ies) and to be used as a test event for the FIFA World Cup;

- Existing play-off window of November 2025 suggested as tentative date for the 2026 edition.

[platinum]

Dollar rain.

[FATHER TIKO]

How come no one yet questions UK (1 political entity) still supplying a possible 4 qualifiers (Eng, Scot, Wales, NIreland)?

That is one reason UEFA has such bloated allocation.

[pajimoh]

So Africa got 4 extra slots with possibility of another one through play off. The continent is the only one to get automatic 4 slots. However I don't think it's the best deal based on number of countries but maybe the best deal based on number of teams that can hold their own at the wc

[pajimoh]

How come no one yet questions UK (1 political entity) still supplying a possible 4 qualifiers (Eng, Scot, Wales, NIreland)?

That is one reason UEFA has such bloated allocation.

And how many of them realistically can qualify?

[Enugu II]

How come no one yet questions UK (1 political entity) still supplying a possible 4 qualifiers (Eng, Scot, Wales, NIreland)?

That is one reason UEFA has such bloated allocation.

FATHER TIKO,

It is one of the rules that FIFA holds sacrosanct. Additionally, those nations have automatic seats on the rule changing committee if I recall correctly. All those are based on UK's position as the founder of the game. TBH, it is annoying.

[pajimoh]

How come no one yet questions UK (1 political entity) still supplying a possible 4 qualifiers (Eng, Scot, Wales, NIreland)?

That is one reason UEFA has such bloated allocation.

FATHER TIKO,

It is one of the rules that FIFA holds sacrosanct. Additionally, those nations have automatic seats on the rule changing committee if I recall correctly. All those are based on UK's position as the founder of the game. TBH, it is annoying.

Rightly or wrongly they've always seen themselves as countries within a country and passion runs deep on origin lines when it comes to football. Now that power is being devolved I don't think this should still continue to be an issue.

[Bigpokey24]

well countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon , Senegal, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, ALgeria, South Africa, Morroco etc should have no excuses not to qualify
Now since one team can get through via a playoff, i wonder how CAF will setup their worldcup qualifying format? Abi they should setup 2 groups of 10 with the 5th placed teams playing a playoff

so for example
Group A

Nigeria,Cameroon, Algeria, Zambia, SouthAfrica, Togo, Burkina, DRCongo Guniea Libya

Group B

Ghana, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, Morroco, Burkina, Senegal,Congo, Zimbabwe,Cape Verde

[pajimoh]

well countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon , Senegal, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, ALgeria, South Africa, Morroco etc should have no excuses not to qualify
Now since one team can get through via a playoff, i wonder how CAF will setup their worldcup qualifying format? Abi they should setup 2 groups of 10 with the 5th placed teams playing a playoff

so for example
Group A

Nigeria,Cameroon, Algeria, Zambia, SouthAfrica, Togo, Burkina, DRCongo Guniea Libya

Group B

Ghana, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, Morroco, Burkina, Senegal,Congo, Zimbabwe,Cape Verde

World cup year is also afcon year. When countries qualify for AFCON the first two to make it out of the group stage to quater finals qualify, basically all quater finalist. The last one will be the next with a better record or a playoff between the best 2 group drop outs

[folem]

CAN is in odd number years.

well countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon , Senegal, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, ALgeria, South Africa, Morroco etc should have no excuses not to qualify
Now since one team can get through via a playoff, i wonder how CAF will setup their worldcup qualifying format? Abi they should setup 2 groups of 10 with the 5th placed teams playing a playoff

so for example
Group A

Nigeria,Cameroon, Algeria, Zambia, SouthAfrica, Togo, Burkina, DRCongo Guniea Libya

Group B

Ghana, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, Morroco, Burkina, Senegal,Congo, Zimbabwe,Cape Verde

World cup year is also afcon year. When countries qualify for AFCON the first two to make it out of the group stage to quater finals qualify, basically all quater finalist. The last one will be the next with a better record or a playoff between the best 2 group drop outs

[folem]

What happens if WC hosts is from UEFA and the playoff host spot?

IMO there is no need for a complicated playoff for this many teams. The Confederations Cup is enough to test WC preparations and it is not in need of jettisoning.

Report below provides a clearer read:

Media Release
Bureau of the Council recommends slot allocation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™
(FIFA.com) 30 Mar 2017
http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2 ... 78254.html

The Bureau of the FIFA Council – comprised of the FIFA President and the presidents of each of the six confederations – convened this Thursday at the Home of FIFA in Zurich and agreed on a proposed slot allocation for the FIFA World Cup™ as of the 2026 edition.

The recommendation will now be submitted for the ratification of the FIFA Council, whose next meeting is scheduled for 9 May in Manama, Bahrain, two days prior to the 67th FIFA Congress.

After 10 January, when the FIFA Council unanimously decided on expanding the FIFA World Cup to a 48-team competition, FIFA, the confederations and the Member Associations engaged in a consultation process, which resulted in the proposal recommended by the Bureau of the Council. According to this proposal, the split of direct berths is as follows:

Slot allocation*

· AFC: 8 direct slots

· CAF: 9 direct slots

· CONCACAF: 6 direct slots

· CONMEBOL: 6 direct slots

· OFC: 1 direct slot

· UEFA: 16 direct slots

* The host country would also automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and its slot would be taken from the quota of its confederation. In the event of co-hosting, the number of host countries to qualify automatically would be decided by the FIFA Council.

Play-off tournament for two remaining slots
The above allocation accounts for 46 of the 48 participating teams. The proposal reviewed by the Bureau of the Council includes a play-off tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup berths:

- One team per confederation with the exception of UEFA + one additional team from the confederation of the host country;

- Two teams to be seeded based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams;

- Tournament to be played in the host country(ies) and to be used as a test event for the FIFA World Cup;

- Existing play-off window of November 2025 suggested as tentative date for the 2026 edition.

[SylverEagles]

I believe the rest of the allocations are fair except for the following:

Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)

Seriously, why does Europe need 16 slots? 13 was already pretty good in my opinion. Those extra slots should've gone to Africa and Asia in my opinion. Africa should have not less than 10 (possibly 12).

[Cito]

well countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon , Senegal, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, ALgeria, South Africa, Morroco etc should have no excuses not to qualify
Now since one team can get through via a playoff, i wonder how CAF will setup their worldcup qualifying format? Abi they should setup 2 groups of 10 with the 5th placed teams playing a playoff

so for example
Group A

Nigeria,Cameroon, Algeria, Zambia, SouthAfrica, Togo, Burkina, DRCongo Guniea Libya

Group B

Ghana, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, Morroco, Burkina, Senegal,Congo, Zimbabwe,Cape Verde

World cup year is also afcon year. When countries qualify for AFCON the first two to make it out of the group stage to quater finals qualify, basically all quater finalist. The last one will be the next with a better record or a playoff between the best 2 group drop outs

it will make sense to stay with the the current format with a little twist. Round 1 and 2 stay same while round 3 is either made into a league format like the South Americans or made into a 2 division format shown by BigPokey.

The 2 first rounds gives lower level teams opportunity to play more games than they will usually play.

Format[edit]
The qualification structure is as follows:[4][5]

First round: A total of 26 teams (teams ranked 28–53) will play home-and-away over two legs. The 13 winners will advance to the second round.
Second round: A total of 40 teams (teams ranked 1–27 and 13 first round winners) will play home-and-away over two legs. The 20 winners will advance to the third round.
Third round: The 20 teams which advance from the second round will be divided into five groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The winners of each group will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Change the highlighted as needed.

[Cito]

I believe the rest of the allocations are fair except for the following:

Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)

Seriously, why does Europe need 16 slots? 13 was already pretty good in my opinion. Those extra slots should've gone to Africa and Asia in my opinion. Africa should have not less than 10 (possibly 12).

They can get 10 if they win one of the 2 spots from intercontinental playoff.

[Enugu II]

folem,

That is how UEFA gets to sneak in 17 teams as I mentioned earlier in the thread. They can do this every other WC year since they get to host the WC theoretically within such a cycle.

What happens if WC hosts is from UEFA and the playoff host spot?

IMO there is no need for a complicated playoff for this many teams. The Confederations Cup is enough to test WC preparations and it is not in need of jettisoning.

Report below provides a clearer read:

Media Release
Bureau of the Council recommends slot allocation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™
(FIFA.com) 30 Mar 2017
http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2 ... 78254.html

The Bureau of the FIFA Council – comprised of the FIFA President and the presidents of each of the six confederations – convened this Thursday at the Home of FIFA in Zurich and agreed on a proposed slot allocation for the FIFA World Cup™ as of the 2026 edition.

The recommendation will now be submitted for the ratification of the FIFA Council, whose next meeting is scheduled for 9 May in Manama, Bahrain, two days prior to the 67th FIFA Congress.

After 10 January, when the FIFA Council unanimously decided on expanding the FIFA World Cup to a 48-team competition, FIFA, the confederations and the Member Associations engaged in a consultation process, which resulted in the proposal recommended by the Bureau of the Council. According to this proposal, the split of direct berths is as follows:

Slot allocation*

· AFC: 8 direct slots

· CAF: 9 direct slots

· CONCACAF: 6 direct slots

· CONMEBOL: 6 direct slots

· OFC: 1 direct slot

· UEFA: 16 direct slots

* The host country would also automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and its slot would be taken from the quota of its confederation. In the event of co-hosting, the number of host countries to qualify automatically would be decided by the FIFA Council.

Play-off tournament for two remaining slots
The above allocation accounts for 46 of the 48 participating teams. The proposal reviewed by the Bureau of the Council includes a play-off tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup berths:

- One team per confederation with the exception of UEFA + one additional team from the confederation of the host country;

- Two teams to be seeded based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams;

- Tournament to be played in the host country(ies) and to be used as a test event for the FIFA World Cup;

- Existing play-off window of November 2025 suggested as tentative date for the 2026 edition.

[Enugu II]

I believe the rest of the allocations are fair except for the following:

Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)

Seriously, why does Europe need 16 slots? 13 was already pretty good in my opinion. Those extra slots should've gone to Africa and Asia in my opinion. Africa should have not less than 10 (possibly 12).

They can get 10 if they wins one of the 2 spots from intercontinental playoff.

Unfortunately, that is not a good answer. He is referring to automatic spots. If you are counting play-ins, UEFA can also get 17 teams.

[Enugu II]

well countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon , Senegal, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, ALgeria, South Africa, Morroco etc should have no excuses not to qualify
Now since one team can get through via a playoff, i wonder how CAF will setup their worldcup qualifying format? Abi they should setup 2 groups of 10 with the 5th placed teams playing a playoff

so for example
Group A

Nigeria,Cameroon, Algeria, Zambia, SouthAfrica, Togo, Burkina, DRCongo Guniea Libya

Group B

Ghana, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, Morroco, Burkina, Senegal,Congo, Zimbabwe,Cape Verde

Do you have enough room in the calendar to schedule the 34 teams that need to be eliminated before arriving to groups of 10 teams that require 18 games each? I think that it will be more efficient getting your groups of then by creating 5 such groups which could work as follows:

1) 54 countries (all members) are eligible.
2) Have a preliminary knockout round of head-to-head between 8 lowest ranked teams where 4 will emerge to join 46 that automatically qualify for the league phase.
3) Create a league phase of five groups with 10 teams each.
4) Winners qualify automatically.
5) 4 of 5 second placed teams also qualify automatically while the fifth goes to the FIFA play-in tournament.

This format is doable as it will use exactly the same schedule currently used for the CONMEBOL qualifiers. The only issue is that for 18 games, some countries may find travel financing a bit difficult.

[tfco]

9 CAF countries, me I go take am like that

Based on recent performances, we could be sending the following

1. Algeria
2. Cameroon
3. Egypt
4. CIV
5. Ghana
6. Naija
7. DRC
8. Senegal
9. Bafana/Burkina/Uganda/Morocco

[Enugu II]

9 CAF countries, me I go take am like that

Based on recent performances, we could be sending the following

1. Algeria
2. Cameroon
3. Egypt
4. CIV
5. Ghana
6. Naija
7. DRC
8. Senegal
9. Bafana/Burkina/Uganda/Morocco

Where are Tunisia and Morocco?

[Bigpokey24]

well countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon , Senegal, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, ALgeria, South Africa, Morroco etc should have no excuses not to qualify
Now since one team can get through via a playoff, i wonder how CAF will setup their worldcup qualifying format? Abi they should setup 2 groups of 10 with the 5th placed teams playing a playoff

so for example
Group A

Nigeria,Cameroon, Algeria, Zambia, SouthAfrica, Togo, Burkina, DRCongo Guniea Libya

Group B

Ghana, CIV, Egypt, Tunisia, Morroco, Burkina, Senegal,Congo, Zimbabwe,Cape Verde

Do you have enough room in the calendar to schedule the 34 teams that need to be eliminated before arriving to groups of 10 teams that require 18 games each? I think that it will be more efficient getting your groups of then by creating 5 such groups which could work as follows:

1) 54 countries (all members) are eligible.
2) Have a preliminary knockout round of head-to-head between 8 lowest ranked teams where 4 will emerge to join 46 that automatically qualify for the league phase.
3) Create a league phase of five groups with 10 teams each.
4) Winners qualify automatically.
5) 4 of 5 second placed teams also qualify automatically while the fifth goes to the FIFA play-in tournament.

This format is doable as it will use exactly the same schedule currently used for the CONMEBOL qualifiers. The only issue is that for 18 games, some countries may find travel financing a bit difficult.

This is not an issue at all.. we are talking about qualifiers for 2026.. the teams i listed are the top teams in CAF, and they've never had any issues travelling... that is why the lower teams( who just played AFCON 2019 qualifiers) will all meet up in the first round.. CAF should play their qualifiers like South America.. We should always have top games against each other , so we can always be competitive.. Teams like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana , Algeria, Egypt ( current 2018 qualifiers) will only improve because they don't have easy games...

Let the top teams compete always ( we now have 9.5 spots) so no more excuses stating top teams being grouped with each other

or better yet caf should ensure at least more than one team qualifies from their group, or they can copy the current UEFA style , whereby playoffs are included

5 groups, 2nd placed team qualifies for the playoffs and the losers from those playoffs will play for the .5 spot vs whoever from the rest of the world...... one way or another( now that gets very complicated ) at the end of the day , the more games played ( in a league format, the better it helps improve rankings, so when it comes to the worldcup proper , we can get favorable seedlings.