International qualifiers are tournaments that thin out the field of teams competing in a major soccer championship. They are usually organized by confederations and overseen by FIFA. The winner of the tournament gains access to the Tournament while the runners-up can gain entry through a play-off or in rare cases, an intercontinental playoff spot.
The number of spots that a continent is given to attend the Tournament is determined by its membership in FIFA, and each continental group — UEFA (Europe), CONMEBOL (South America), CONCACAF (North America) and OFC (Oceania) — has its own way of getting there. These methods include having their members play each other home/away due to small numbers, splitting the countries into groups of a certain size where the top teams qualify directly and then having second-place teams fight for remaining spots or holding one-legged playoffs for final spots.
Dan Thomas is joined by Craig Burley and Shaka Hislop to talk about the latest qualifiers from around the world. Watch live on ESPN+.
In the European section, teams that participated in a 2024 UNL quarter-final are guaranteed to be drawn into four-team groups. The other teams were placed in Pots based on their ranking in the November 2024 FIFA Men’s World Ranking.
All group winners and runners-up advance to Round 3 where they will be placed into four two-legged playoff paths. Those winners will then play for the three spots in the finals that are available in the Tournament.