2026 World Cup European qualifying draw: December 2024 archive
All twelve European qualifying groups from the December 2024 draw, with Nations League placeholders, later resolutions and the route to 16 World Cup places explained.
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The European qualifying draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup took place in Zurich on 13 December 2024. This archive preserves the twelve groups as drawn, including the Nations League placeholders. A separate column records their later resolution; those countries were not all known when the original article appeared in December 2024.
The twelve qualifying groups
The draw entries follow UEFA’s original draw and fixture document. “Winner” and “loser” refer to a Nations League quarter-final, not a World Cup qualifying match. A dash means the country was already named in the draw, so no later resolution was needed.
| Group | Draw entry | Later resolved as | Other countries |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Germany–Italy winner | Germany | Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Luxembourg |
| B | Switzerland | — | Sweden, Slovenia, Kosovo |
| C | Portugal–Denmark loser | Denmark | Greece, Scotland, Belarus |
| D | France–Croatia winner | France | Ukraine, Iceland, Azerbaijan |
| E | Spain–Netherlands winner | Spain | Türkiye, Georgia, Bulgaria |
| F | Portugal–Denmark winner | Portugal | Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Armenia |
| G | Spain–Netherlands loser | Netherlands | Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Malta |
| H | Austria | — | Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, San Marino |
| I | Germany–Italy loser | Italy | Norway, Israel, Estonia, Moldova |
| J | Belgium | — | Wales, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein |
| K | England | — | Serbia, Albania, Latvia, Andorra |
| L | France–Croatia loser | Croatia | Czechia, Montenegro, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar |
The later resolutions follow UEFA’s qualification guide, updated in November 2025. Conditional entries were not extra teams in each group.
How qualification worked
Europe had 16 finals places. Twelve group winners qualified directly; the other four came through play-offs. The play-off field combined the twelve runners-up with the four best-ranked 2024/25 Nations League group winners who had not finished first or second in their qualifying group. Sixteen entrants competed in four paths, each with single-leg semi-finals and a final.
The group campaign ran during March–November 2025, with four-team groups starting in September. The play-off dates were 26 and 31 March 2026. These dates describe a completed qualification cycle, not upcoming matches. Being drawn into a group, reaching a play-off and qualifying for the finals were different stages.
What this draw record does not tell you
Group composition alone does not establish a likely winner, the strength of a price or the settlement of a private bet. The original outright odds and England boost were dated promotions for an edition that has since finished; this archive does not relaunch them.
Related tournament records
BCP’s format-decision archive explains why the finals had 48 teams and twelve groups of four. Those finals groups are separate from these European qualifying groups. For the later qualifying play-off stage, use the March 2026 qualification archive.
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