The 2026 FIFA World Cup European Qualifications group stage draw started at 14.00 at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. In the draw, in which 54 countries will participate, the teams were distributed into a total of 5 bags depending on their positions in the world rankings. Türkiye participates in the draw from the 2nd pot.
👉🏻CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE DRAW LIVE
HOW WILL THE DRAW PROCEDURE BE?
The draw will start by drawing the teams in the 1st pot; Then we will move on to bags 2 and below.
Each team whose name is drawn will be placed in the most available group alphabetically from A to L.
Since there are only 6 teams in pot 5, these teams will be placed as the 5th team in each of groups G and L.
WHEN WILL THE MATCHES BE PLAYED?
Matches in the 2026 World Cup European Qualifiers will start in March 2025 in groups of 5 teams and in September 2025 in groups of 4 teams. All qualifying group matches will be completed in November 2025.
Due to UEFA’s new national team competitions structure, the 2026 World Cup European Qualifiers and the matches within the expanded format of the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League will be played in parallel between March and June 2025.
Although 54 teams will participate in the World Cup European Qualifiers, 24 of these teams will compete in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals or play-off matches in March 2025. The four winners of the quarter-final matches will compete in the Nations League finals in June.
THE BAGS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Bag 1: France, Spain, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria.
Bag 2: Ukraine, Sweden, TürkiyeWales, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Greece, Slovakia, Czechia and Norway.
Bag 3: Scotland, Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, North Macedonia, Georgia, Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Israel.
Bag 4: Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Belarus, Kosovo, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Southern Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Latvia and Lithuania.
5. Bag: Moldova, Malta, Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino.