World Cup 2026: Who will England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland face in qualifying?

There are 12 World Cup European qualifying groups – six have four teams and the other six have five teams.

Teams will play each other home and away as usual.

Qualifying will begin in March and June for the five-team groups.

The four-team groups, will begin theirs a few months later, in September.

A total of 16 European teams will qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

The top team from each of the 12 groups will go through automatically.

The runners-up will go into the play-offs with four Nations League teams.

The play-offs will take place at the end of March 2026 and four play-off teams will qualify for the tournament.