Alongside European champion Spain, England, Italy and Germany, France is logically placed in hat 1 for qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
The France team will be part of hat 1 during the draw for the Europe zone qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup (in the United States, Canada and Mexico), which will take place on December 13 in Zurich, announced this Thursday FIFA. Seeded status was granted to the eight Nations League quarter-finalists (France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Denmark) as well as the four highest-ranked European countries in the Fifa rankings (England, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria).
Decisive Nations League quarter-finals
The French world vice-champions will know at the end of the quarter-finals of the League of Nations against Croatia (first leg on March 20, 2025 in Croatia, return on March 23, 2025 in France) if they will be in a group of four or five teams. In the event of accession to the Final Four of the League of Nations (June 4 to 8, 2025), the Blues will play in a group of four and will begin their campaign in September 2025. If they are eliminated in the quarter-finals, they will begin the World Cup qualifying in June 2025 in a group of five nations.
Sixteen European countries, instead of 13 so far, will obtain their tickets for this first 48-team World Cup scheduled from June 11 to July 19, 2026. The first in each of the 12 groups will be directly qualified for the final phase. The runners-up, as well as the four other best-ranked teams among those having finished first in their Nations League group, will compete for the last four tickets via play-offs in March 2026.
The hats for the European zone qualifying draw:
Hat 1: FranceSpain, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria
Hat 2: Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey, Wales, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Greece, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Norway
Hat 3: Scotland, Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, North Macedonia, Georgia, Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel
Hat 4:: Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Belarus, Kosovo, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Lithuania
Hat 5: Moldova, Malta, Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, San Marino
