The international qualifiers are where the battles for places at the next World Cup are fought. They are usually staged in two legs and if the scores are level after 90 minutes extra time is played and then penalties if needed. The best teams then progress to the play-offs. Some countries don’t participate in these competitions for reasons connected to political instability (Eritrea for example) but many national federations do. And some of them are in conflict-riddled countries and so it’s important for their officials to think carefully about the location for their qualifiers.
The race to the 2026 World Cup is still in its early stages but we’re starting to get a clearer picture of how things will pan out. There are six groups of five nations apiece so the top three in each will qualify directly. The runners-up then enter an intercontinental play-off.
In a change to previous processes this round scrapped the pre-eliminary round and put 54 countries into nine groups with 6 teams in each who will play home and away matches on hexa format. The top 2 in each group will then qualify for Qatar and the best four 2nds face each other in one-legged playoffs to determine the fourth team that goes through.
Those 4 best runners-up are then joined by the winner of the OFC qualifying tournament in November to make up the final two spots. There’s been no official word on how Eritrea’s withdrawal will affect the comparison of the 9 group winners but it seems likely that the results of their home games against each other (as well as the away games against the other groups) will be dropped.