Summer 2026 is still a long way off, but it's getting closer. In any case, it will enter the heads of the players of the France team, who will defend their World Cup final, reached in December 2022 against Argentina. Next December 13, first stage: the draw for the qualifiers. The procedure and the seeds were made official this Thursday, and the Blues will be protected.
Because logically, they are part of hat 1. Winners in 2018, finalists in 2022, Didier Deschamps' men will therefore avoid all the European leaders for the qualifications. The eight Nations League quarter-finalists are in this first pot, and are joined by the four highest placed European nations in the FIFA world rankings: England, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria. This same classification determined the composition of the four other hats.
Twelve groups will therefore be drawn on December 13. If the Blues will avoid strong teams like Spain, England or Germany, they will still be able to meet Ukraine, Turkey, Greece or Norway. Only the first in each group will be directly qualified for the competition.
The hats of the draw:
Hat 1: France, Spain, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria
Hat 2: Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey, Wales, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Greece, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Norway
Hat 3: Scotland, Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, North Macedonia, Georgia, Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Israel
Hat 4: Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Belarus, Kosovo, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Latvia and Lithuania
Hat 5: Moldova, Malta, Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino
France
