The 2026 World Cup is going to look and feel very different from anything we’ve seen before. With the tournament expanding from 32 to 48 teams, FIFA has completely reshaped the format — more groups, a bigger knockout stage, and a new seeding system designed to keep the heavyweights apart until late in the competition.
It’s a shift that’s already sparking fresh interest from fans exploring odds across the beautiful game as they try to make sense of how the new structure might influence results.
Here’s a simple breakdown of what’s changing, who’s involved in the playoffs, and how the draw will work.
More teams and more groups
The first big change is obvious: 48 nations means a much bigger tournament. Instead of eight groups, we’ll now have 12 groups of four teams.
The top two from each group will go through as usual, but this time they’ll be joined by eight of the best third-placed teams. That gives us a huge Round of 32, followed by the traditional knockout steps: Round of 16, quarters, semis and final.
In total, we’ll see over 100 matches played across the USA, Canada and Mexico — easily the largest World Cup ever staged.
For smaller nations, this format is a blessing. Finishing third is no longer a disaster, as one good win could be enough to sneak into the knockouts.
Playoffs for the final qualification spots
With so many places up for grabs, FIFA has introduced playoff routes to decide some of the final qualifiers. It’s a mix of inter-continental and regional playoff paths, and the winners of these matches go straight into the tournament.
The teams that come through the playoffs will be placed into Pot 4, meaning they’ll likely be drawn against some stronger nations. But the expanded format also gives them a real chance of causing an upset.
The playoffs feature a mix of European heavyweights and global qualifiers fighting for the final spots. On the European side, teams like Italy, Wales, Ukraine, and Poland are involved and are generally seen as the strongest favourites to make it through their playoff paths. In the inter-continental playoffs, the seeded nations — Iraq and DR Congo — have the best chance of qualifying, while Jamaica, Suriname and Bolivia are the most likely challengers.
FIFA’s new seeding system
One of the biggest differences for 2026 is the new seeding approach. FIFA now ranks the top four teams separately, placing each one in its own section of the draw. This system is based on FIFA rankings, which are calculated from each team’s performances in World Cup qualifiers, continental competitions and recent international tournaments. The top four seeded teams are Spain, Argentina, France and England, and this setup places these teams into the same draw pot, meaning they cannot face each other until at least the semi-finals.
How the pots work
For the group-stage draw, teams are divided into four pots, mostly based on FIFA rankings:
- Pot 1 – the three host nations and the nine highest-ranked qualifying teams (Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany)
- Pot 2 – mid-ranked teams (Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia)
- Pot 3 – also mid-ranked teams (Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, South Africa)
- Pot 4 – lowest-ranked qualifiers and all play-off winners (Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, European playoff winners A-D, Inter-confederation playoff winners 1-2)
The end result should be that the groups feel balanced with teams of all different abilities and rankings.
