How the Uefa draw will work
There will be 12 qualifying groups – six with five teams, and six with four teams – with teams playing each other home and away, and only the group winner going through automatically. The runners-up (plus four teams with the best Nations League records) will go into the playoffs for the final four European spots at the 48-team finals.
Teams are seeded in five pots (details of those to follow) – one slight wrinkle is that teams who reach the Nations League semi-finals must go into a four-team group. As the quarter-finals have not been played yet, those teams can’t be fully allocated today. For instance, Italy play Germany in the last eight, so both teams will be pencilled in to a four- and five- team group, with the winner of the tie going into the four-team group.
The games will be held across five international breaks, on 21-25 March, 6-10 June, 4-9 September, 9-14 October and 13-18 November 2025.
Key events
Helping out with draw duties today are Robert Pires, Ariane Hingst, Fernando Llorente, Rachel Yankey and Gianluca Zambrotta. They’re joined by Manolo Zubiria, the 2026 World Cup’s chief tournament officer.
Presenter Semra Hunter is out on stage in Zurich, and he’s joined by the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, dressed in customary suit and ice-white Stan Smiths. He doesn’t seem as invested today as in the World Cup hosting selection party on Wednesday, talking briefly about hosting “the best World Cup ever” before heading off again.
In addition to the 16 European teams, there will be nine African teams at the 2026 World Cup, eight Asian teams and six from South America. The three hosts: Canada, the United States and Mexico, all qualify automatically; three other teams from North and Central America (Concacaf) will earn a spot. Oceania have an automatic spot for the first time; with Australia in AFC qualifying, that is very likely to be New Zealand. In addition, two more teams will qualify through the final intercontinental playoffs in March 2026.
The seeding pots are as follows:
Pot 1: Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Croatia, England, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria.
Pot 2: Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey, Wales, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Czechia, Norway.
Pot 3: Scotland, Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, North Macedonia, Georgia, Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Israel.
Pot 4: Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Kosovo, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Latvia, Lithuania.
Pot 5: Moldova, Malta, Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, San Marino.
How the Uefa draw will work
There will be 12 qualifying groups – six with five teams, and six with four teams – with teams playing each other home and away, and only the group winner going through automatically. The runners-up (plus four teams with the best Nations League records) will go into the playoffs for the final four European spots at the 48-team finals.
Teams are seeded in five pots (details of those to follow) – one slight wrinkle is that teams who reach the Nations League semi-finals must go into a four-team group. As the quarter-finals have not been played yet, those teams can’t be fully allocated today. For instance, Italy play Germany in the last eight, so both teams will be pencilled in to a four- and five- team group, with the winner of the tie going into the four-team group.
The games will be held across five international breaks, on 21-25 March, 6-10 June, 4-9 September, 9-14 October and 13-18 November 2025.
Man City post record revenues but profits drop
Manchester City posted record revenues last season but profit dropped from the previous 12 months, the club’s annual report has revealed. In 2023/24, revenues increased from £712.8m to £715m for the year to 30 June as City won their fourth consecutive Premier League title.
However, profits dipped from £80.4m in City’s treble-winning season to £73.8m, with a drop in broadcast income due to Pep Guardiola’s side missing out on the Champions League final. City’s current investments include a £300million expansion of the north stand of the Etihad Stadium.
The club’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said: “Our constant ambition to target and achieve the unprecedented is a mark of the organisation that we have become. Our focus remains on further evolution and growth and therefore further value creation in all aspects of our business.”
City are awaiting a decision on more than 100 charges of alleged breaches of financial rules brought against them by the Premier League, of which only brief mention was made in the financial report. The club have denied the charges.
Here’s what to look out for this weekend …
Preamble
The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams, and 16 of them will come from Europe. Friday’s draw in Zurich will set up the Uefa qualifying groups – 12 in total – with Thomas Tuchel discovering the path he has to lead England to the finals. His side are in pot one, Wales in pot two, and Scotland in pot three alongside Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That draw gets under way at 11am (GMT) today.
Elsewhere, there are plenty of press conferences as the Premier League continues this weekend. Newcastle’s Eddie Howe and Liverpool’s Arne Slot are both talking this morning, with Ange Postecoglou, Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta coming up later. We’ll also try to keep you updated on all the day’s developing football news.