The seeded teams for the World Cup tournament draw on December 5th are already defined, with Germany at the top, but without Croatia. This was finalized on Wednesday, when FIFA published the new rankings, one day after four continents completed the qualifying phase.
The United States, Canada, and Mexico, co-hosts of the tournament, will join Spain, Argentina (defending champion), France, England, Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the seeded pot.
Team classification for the 2026 World Cup: The 64 national teams that could still win next summer
The best stories and wildest celebrations from the amazing World Cup qualifying week
The resounding victory over Uruguay shows how far the USMNT has come in 16 months
Croatia, semi-finalist in 2022 and finalist against France in 2018, was relegated to Pot 2 for the draw ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., which President Donald Trump is expected to attend.
The updated FIFA rankings also decided the seeding for Thursday’s draw of the playoff brackets in March, which will decide the final six entries into the expanded 48-nation lineup.The 22-team playoff field includes 16 from Europe who will play for four World Cup spots and six from the other regions who will seek two spots in the intercontinental playoffs.
Italy tops the European charts, as the four-time world champions aim to avoid a humiliating third consecutive elimination in the playoffs.
The Italians, ranked 12th, were pushed into the playoffs after finishing second in a qualifying group won by Norway. Erling Haaland’s Norwegian team is shaping up to be a dangerous option from Pot 3 in two weeks.
Italy will be drawn on Thursday at home against a team from the fourth pot. That could be North Macedonia again, who surprisingly eliminated the Italians in 2022.
The winner on March 26th will advance to a playoff final five days later against the team emerging from the match between the second and third seeds in their elimination bracket. The advantage of playing at home in the single-game playoff finals will be decided by Thursday’s draw and not by the FIFA ranking.
It is expected that the teams that ultimately emerge from the four separate European playoff brackets will be substitutes from the low-ranked Pot 4 in the December 5 draw.
The intercontinental play-offs will see Iraq and Congo each waiting for the winner of the play-off semi-finals involving Bolivia, Jamaica, New Caledonia and Suriname.
European Playoffs
Pot 1: Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Ukraine.
Pot 2: Poland, Wales, Czech Republic, Slovakia.
Pot 3: Republic of Ireland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo.
Pot 4: Northern Ireland, Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia.
