With the 2026 World Cup qualifiers well underway, there’s plenty to keep casual fans, diehard fans, and punters glued to their screens. A couple of dark horses in UEFA and intriguing possibilities among debutant North American teams have emerged, making for a compelling finish to the qualification process.

In a move that reverts to the previous way of seeding for the tournament, teams from each zone competed against each other for a fixed number of berths at the finals (with an additional allocation for the winners of inter-confederation play-offs). Each region is divided into zones which roughly correspond to the continents. The teams within a zone compete to qualify for the World Cup by finishing in the top three spots of their group.

With only two rounds of qualifying remaining, the race to the next World Cup is beginning to take shape. Six countries have already secured direct spots from South America, including favorites Argentina and Brazil. But, it’s not over yet: Venezuela still needs a point from their home game against Ecuador and a win at Colombia to guarantee their place. Bolivia are also in a strong position to qualify and can clinch a spot with a win over Colombia, followed by a draw at Venezuela.

In the first round of qualifying, 54 FIFA-affiliated nations were drawn into groups based on their rankings at the end of the 2024 Nations League. The nine group winners qualified for the World Cup and the best runners-up went into the inter-confederation playoffs in November 2025.