The Swiss team will be part of pot 1 during the qualifying draw for the Europe zone for the 2026 World Cup (in the United States, Canada and Mexico), which will take place on December 13 in Zurich, FIFA announced on Thursday .
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).
Nations League qualifiers will know at the end of the quarter-finals whether they will be in a group of 4 or 5 teams.
In the event of accession to the Final Four of the Nations League (June 4 to 8, 2025), the qualified teams 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 ticket 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: France, Spain, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Croatia, SuisseDenmark, 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
