Lionel Messi’s streak of winning the FIFA World Cup Football in Qatar did not end here. Meanwhile, the 2026 FIFA World Cup venue, number of teams, number of continental teams, number of matches and ticket sales process have been finalized. Even the 2026 World Cup qualifiers for different continents have been announced.
All three countries have automatically qualified for the World Cup as co-hosts, according to the announced schedule. So they will directly participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup football.
The qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, will begin on the Asian continent first. Asia’s election war will begin this year, i.e. October 2023. It will end in October 2025.
Right after Asia, the election battle of the South American continent will begin. The qualifying battle for the CONMEBOL region will begin in September 2023 and end in September 2025.
The North American continent qualifiers will begin in March 2024 and end in November 2025. Interestingly, when the election wars in Asia, South Africa and North America regions are over, the election wars in Europe will begin.
The European qualifiers will begin in March 2025. It will end in November 2025. This means that the European qualifiers will end in just 8 months! However, a maximum of 16 countries from this Europe will get a chance in the World Cup.
The start date of the qualifiers for the Africa and Oceania region is yet to be announced. But the announcement may come very soon. The second highest number of 9 countries from the African continent will get the opportunity.
8 countries will go directly to the World Cup from Asia. Six countries from South and North America will qualify directly for the main stage of the World Cup. A country from the Oceania region will get one seat directly. The three host countries, the United States, Mexico and Canada, will participate directly. They don’t have to enter the election war. Besides, the remaining two teams will come from the playoffs. Together the 2026 World Cup will have 48 teams. There will be a total of 104 matches in the tournament.
