2026 FIFA World Cup Qualified Nations Tracker

Image Credit: Fauzan Saari

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is less than eight months away, meaning that the tournament’s qualifiers are nearing their end. As of November 19, 2025, 42 nations have qualified for the final tournament, which will take place throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States in June and July 2026. Unlike previous editions, the 2026 tournament will include a record 48 participating nations, an increase from the 32 nations that participated in each World Cup edition from 1998 in France to 2022 in Qatar.

The Go-Ahead Goal will be actively producing 2026 FIFA World Cup content: from data analytics to insightful analysis; from match performances and records to intriguing trends and patterns.

Our first analysis comprises a collection of all nations that have qualified for the 2026 World Cup and their number of tournament appearances, from debutants to Brazil maintaining a perfect 23 World Cup tournament appearances.

Source: FIFA

Notes: For technical reasons, England and Scotland are not included in the map. England and have Scotland qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be their 17th and 10th World Cup tournament appearances, respectively.

Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan will be making their respective World Cup tournament debuts. Home to approximately 150,000 people, Curaçao became the smallest nation by population to qualify for the World Cup.

Brazil is the only nation to have qualified and participated in each of the previous 22 World Cup tournaments; they will also participate in the 2026 World Cup.

The March 2026 international window will include European playoffs and the Intercontinental playoffs, both of which are tournament-style formats with semifinal matches and a final match. The European playoffs will include four divisions of four clubs, whereas the Intercontinental playoffs will include two divisions of three nations, with the best-ranked nation from each bracket getting a bypass to the final.

Four European nations out of 16 will qualify for the 2026 World Cup via the European playoffs, while two nations will qualify via the Intercontinental playoffs. The 16 European nations participating in the European playoffs are:

• Albania;

• Bosnia & Herzegovina;

• Czechia;

• Denmark;

• Ireland;

• Italy;

• Kosovo;

• North Macedonia;

• Northern Ireland;

• Poland;

• Romania;

• Slovakia;

• Sweden;

• Türkiye;

• Ukraine; and

• Wales.

The Incontinental Playoffs includes one nation from Africa, one from Asia, two from North America, one from Oceania and one from South America. The six participating nations are the following:

• Bolivia (South America);

• DR Congo (Africa), which qualifies automatically to one of the two playoff finals;

• Iraq (Asia), which qualifies automatically to one of the two playoff finals;

• Jamaica (North America);

• New Caledonia (Oceania); and

• Suriname (North America).