FIFA has confirmed the 48 participating teams for the upcoming World Cup and stated that the tournament is set to be held as scheduled. This was announced following a meeting in Zurich. In March, both European playoffs and the intercontinental playoff will take place. The latter is a mini-tournament held in Mexico, featuring teams from South America, Concacaf, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
The intercontinental playoff for the 2026 World Cup in Guadalajara and Monterrey will feature six teams from different football confederations: Bolivia (Conmebol), Jamaica (Concacaf), Suriname (Concacaf), New Caledonia (Oceania), Iraq (AFC), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (CAF).
The FIFA tournament will be played in a single-elimination mini-tournament format. First, semifinals will be contested between the four lowest-ranked FIFA teams: Bolivia, Suriname, Jamaica, and New Caledonia. The last participation of a South American team was at the 1994 World Cup in the USA.
In Mexico, the intercontinental playoff matches for the 2026 World Cup will be available on TUDN, ViX, and FIFA+, the official platform of the governing body. FIFA has put tickets for the matches in Guadalajara and Monterrey on sale. The official prices for the tournament are: 200 Mexican pesos for the first round and 300 Mexican pesos for the second round. Tickets are available through the official FIFA website.
The European playoff also has direct implications for Mexico as the host nation, as it determines the team that will join Group A, where the Mexican national team is already placed. The winner of Key D—which includes the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, and North Macedonia—will be the rival to complete that group alongside South Africa and South Korea.
The World Cup atmosphere is already building in Mexico: Guadalajara and Monterrey are hosting the playoff matches for the 2026 World Cup, a series of qualifiers that will determine which national teams secure the last six spots in the tournament. Amid uncertainty over Iran's participation in the 2026 World Cup, FIFA President Gianni Infantino explained that the body is maintaining the original dates for the entire tournament: "We have a schedule."
The team reached this stage by finishing second in the qualifiers of their confederation. Suriname is also attempting to reach the final phase of the tournament for the first time. The Caribbean team advanced to the playoff by finishing as one of the best second-place teams in the third round of Concacaf qualifiers. In contrast, Bolivia is trying to return to a World Cup after more than three decades.
Subsequently, the winners will face the two top-seeded teams in the finals: Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The teams that win the playoff finals will advance directly to the group stage of the 2026 World Cup: The winner of the match in Guadalajara will enter Group K, alongside Portugal, Uzbekistan, and Colombia. The victor of the match in Monterrey will join Group I, where France, Norway, and Senegal are already placed.
The playoff also represents a historic opportunity for some countries that have never participated in a World Cup. New Caledonia, representing Oceania, aspires to play in its first World Cup.
