World Cup 2026

[alanrotoi]

This world cup will have 48 teams. These are the classified countries for now (22th June) from every confederation.


AFC (Asia) 8 places

🇯🇵 Japan

🇮🇷 Iran

🇺🇿 Uzbekistan

🇰🇷 South Korea

🇯🇴 Jordan

🇦🇺 Australia



CONCACAF (North America & Caribe) 6 places

🇨🇦 Canada

🇺🇸 USA

🇲🇽 Mexico


CONMEBOL (South America) 6 places

🇦🇷 Argentina

🇧🇷 Brazil

🇪🇨 Ecuador


OFC (Oceania) 1 place

🇳🇿 New Zealand


UEFA (Europe) 16 places


CAF (Africa) 9 places

Plus 6 playoffs matches.

What do you think about the new quantity of teams? Will your country classify?

[HerrNove]

The increase to 48 teams is another step towards the transformation of football from a sport into show business. At least it's less horrible than the present "club world cup".

As an Italian, not qualifying for a 48-team competition would be an unprecedented humiliation, but since the downfall of our football movement has been matched by our incredible rise in a ton of other sports, I don't particularly mind. I hope my wife's team, Indonesia, manages to qualify, but it will be very hard.

[alanrotoi]

I hope Indonesia makes it too. I was crazy about that country when I was child. I invented a whole football league and many players from there.

Still, their football is pretty amateur yet and also it was sanctioned in the last 2 or 3 eliminatories for world cups.

Italia will return to the world cup, I'm sure. The one that won't return is Chile.

[Duplode]

I think the expansion to 48 teams won't weaken the level of the World Cup, and the extra slots give a fairer deal to at least some of the continents (Africa in particular). The bigger problems IMO are groups becoming boring with best-thirds qualification, and 104 matches being too much to follow comfortably.

(It turns out I feel kinda similarly about the Club World Cup. A 32-club tournament every four years arguably makes more sense than the weird yearly little tournaments with lopsided brackets we've had over the last couple decades. Then again, the powers that be apparently want to keep the yearly tournament and also resurrect the old single-match Intercontinental, not to mention there's already some speculation about expanding the CWC to 48 teams. I'm sure Infantino and co. have plenty of golden goose-killing tricks up their sleeves.)

As an Italian, not qualifying for a 48-team competition would be an unprecedented humiliation, but since the downfall of our football movement has been matched by our incredible rise in a ton of other sports, I don't particularly mind.

That's a great point, actually. If football goes down the drain completely, I'll still have the volleyball 

[Usrin]

What do you think about the new quantity of teams? Will your country classify?

The group stage will be unserious and difficult to follow with so many participants. There are no more than 24 top-level national teams who can play exciting matches against each other. 32 teams were an acceptable compromise to include all parts of the world and making the selection of the best 16 clearer (no advancement of best 3rd's). 48 will be much worse from all aspects. The group stage will be practically a qualification round and should not be called part of the World Cup.

Anyway, my countries (Hungary and Slovakia) will not qualify from Europe, although they are probably between the world's 48 strongest teams. They could have got a super easy way if they joined the Asian federation. The country where I am living (Norway) will make it, they finally managed to build a functional team from mediocre players (particularly in the defense) and 3-4 stars. And they have Italy from the first seed in the qualifying group, that helps a lot.

[HerrNove]

> And they have Italy from the first seed in the qualifying group, that helps a lot.

Italy - Norway in the 1994 WC was possibly the first national game I ever watched. We were a team with excellent players in almost every role, even featuring some all-time greats (Maldini, Baggio), while Norway was a bunch of unknowns. The Italian team declared they feared Norway and were not the favourites, but everyone knew they were just being diplomatic.

Thirty-one years later the Italians still say the same things, except this time they are objectively true. The Azzurri are a collection of mediocre guys except for the goalkeeper, while Norway managed to go from Alf-Inge Håland to Erling Håland. And it showed on the field.

[alanrotoi]

except for the goalkeeper

Stop exploiting Buffon he's a great player but he must be 55 y/o.

PS: kidding

[Mortimer Macmire]

Just curious, as a typical Dutch tradition we already see ourselves (or at least the majority of the country does) as one of the outsiders for the titel (even without being qualified).

How do you guys fancy the chances for the men in orange? And who do you think might surprise us all as Morocco did in the last World Cup?

[HerrNove]

I am not following football as much as other times, but honestly I cannot think of any Dutch star right now. Anyway, you guys did not win the Cup when you were the strongest, so maybe you are going to win it when you aren't

[Usrin]

Anyway, you guys did not win the Cup when you were the strongest, so maybe you are going to win it when you aren't

That is also true for Hungary (1954), but I doubt it could help us in the present.

[Duplode]

And who do you think might surprise us all as Morocco did in the last World Cup?

From South America, Ecuador are doing well at the moment, and I can picture them doing a deep run. (Though with the new format it's up in the air what will count as a deep run!) By the way, if Venezuela can hold on to 7th on the qualifiers, they will have a decent shot at making it through the playoffs. (They are the only CONMEBOL team that hasn't made it to a World Cup yet.)

On the Netherlands, from what little I saw the team seemed to be playing nicer football than what I recall from 2022, so maybe there's reason for optimism!