Northern Ireland’s success in the UEFA Nations League means they will be a Pot 3 team in the draw for stage one of the FIFA World Cup 2026 European qualifiers.
Following the 2-2 draw with Luxembourg on Monday, Michael O’Neill’s side not only topped UNL League C Group 3 and earned promotion to League B for the next edition of the competition, but they also cemented a Pot 3 spot in the Euro qualifiers draw for the next World Cup.
The UEFA qualifying group stage of World Cup qualifiers will begin in March and conclude next November. There will be 12 groups of four or five teams, with the group winners securing a place at the World Cup finals in Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026.
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 therefore 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.
The draw for stage one of the European qualifiers (qualifying group stage) is set to take place at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland, on Friday 13 December (11am UK time).
Following the completion of the fourth edition of the Nations League, the pots for that draw have now been finalised.
Northern Ireland will avoid Scotland and Republic of Ireland in stage one of the qualifiers as they are also Pot 3 teams, however both England and Wales are potential opponents. UNL League B2 winners England will be in Pot 1 in the draw, while Wales are in Pot 2 after topping B4 to earn promotion to League A.
The 12 top-seeded nations in Europe (Pot 1) are the eight Nations League quarter-finalists from League A plus four more teams ranked highest by FIFA, including England. FIFA world rankings and Nations League placings have been used to determine which teams fill the other pots.
The teams in Pot 1 for stage one of the Euro qualifiers are as follows: Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Croatia, England, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.
And the Pot 2 teams are: Ukraine, Sweden, Turkiye, Wales, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Czechia and Norway.
The teams Northern Ireland will avoid (ie the other teams in Pot 3) include Scotland, Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, North Macedonia, Georgia, Finland, Iceland, Montenegro, Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Pot 4 teams are: Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Kosovo, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Lithuania.
And if Northern Ireland are drawn in a five-team group then their potential opponents from Pot 5 are as follows: Moldova, Malta, Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino.
Places in four-team qualifying groups will be reserved for the four teams that advance to the Nations League semi-finals next June following last eight fixtures in March.
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.
