Northern Ireland will play either Germany or Italy in stage one of the FIFA World Cup 2026 European qualifiers.
And joining them in a four-team qualifying group next autumn will be Slovakia and Luxembourg.
Michael O’Neill’s side were in Pot 3 for today’s draw staged at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland, while Germany/Italy were chosen from Pot 1 and Slovakia from Pot 2. Luxembourg were in Pot 4.
The Germans and Italians, both former World Cup winners, will play each other in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals in March and the winner of that last eight tie will then meet Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Luxembourg in the Group A qualifiers next autumn.
Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill said: “It’s an exciting and demanding draw, which is to be expected. We will have to be at our very best for every fixture.
“But this is a young team we are building and I know the desire will be there when the games come round in September.”
The UEFA qualifying group stage of World Cup qualifiers will begin in March and conclude next November.
Group A is one of six groups in the qualifiers featuring four teams. Places in four-team qualifying groups have been reserved for teams who will be competing in the Nations League semi-finals next summer.
There will also be six groups of five teams, with all 12 group winners securing a place at the World Cup finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026.
The draw was conducted by five FIFA legends, including Robert Pires, Gianluca Zambrotta and Fernando Llorente, who won the World Cup with France, Italy and Spain respectively. They were joined by Ariane Hingst, a two-time Women’s World Cup winner with Germany, and former England star Rachel Yankey.
In next year’s European qualifiers the competing teams will play each other home and away. Teams drawn in groups of five will start qualifying in March and teams drawn in groups of four will begin their campaigns in September.
The expansion of FIFA’s flagship event ahead of the 2026 instalment – the next World Cup is set to feature 48 teams - means the number of places for UEFA member nations will increase from 13 to 16.
And that also means the four remaining European places will be decided in March 2026 in a 16-team UEFA play-off involving the 12 group stage runners-up and the four best-ranked UEFA Nations League 2024-25 group winners that have neither qualified directly for the FIFA World Cup as group winners nor entered the play-offs already as group runners-up.
Stage one of European qualifying will feature 54 of UEFA’s 55 member nations as UEFA member Russia has been banned from international football during the military invasion of Ukraine.
Image: Fernando Llorente displays the Northern Ireland card at today’s draw at FIFA HQ.
