All Whites fans will learn on Thursday July 18 who New Zealand will face in the qualifying games to decide who’ll represent Oceania at the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.
The draw will take place at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters to decide the pathway to the World Cup for the 11 Oceania nations.
For the first time, Oceania is assured of at least one place at the new-style 48-nation World Cup tournament.
Of the 11 Oceania teams, the four lowest-ranked teams — Samoa, Cook Islands, American Samoa and Tonga — will compete in a round one knockout-match format in September 2024 to decide which of the quartet joins the seven highest-ranked sides in the second round.
The draw
The draw will see the eight countries split across three pots, and they will then be drawn into two groups of four. The draw will start with Pot 3, working through to Pot 1.
Pot 1
- New Zealand
- Solomon Islands
Pot 2
- Fiji
- Tahiti
- New Caledonia
- Vanuatu
Pot 3
- Papua New Guinea
- Winner round one (from Samoa, Cook Islands, American Samoa and Tonga)
The draw will be performed by France’s FIFA World Cup ’98 winner and FIFA Legend Christian Karembeu, who was born in New Caledonia, and Aucklander Dame Sarai Bareman, FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer.
The draw will take place at 7pm (NZT) and be streamed live and free by FIFA+ here >>>>
Main photo; The FIFA Men’s World Cup. Photo credit: Alexander Scheuber – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images.
How the qualifying format works
Each country will play every opponent in the group once in matches staged in October and November 2024 with the top two teams from each group progressing to round three.
In March 2025, they will meet in semi-final ties (Group A winners vs Group B runners-up, Group B winners vs Group A runners-up). The victors of those matches will then go head-to-head for the first-ever guaranteed ticket to a FIFA World Cup for an OFC nation.
The runner-up in that contest will progress to the FIFA intercontinental play-off tournament where victory would give Oceania an historic second FIFA World Cup representative in Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026.
All the matches of the OFC qualification phase to FIFA World Cup 26 will be broadcast worldwide on FIFA+ starting from September 2024.
Match dates
Dates and venues for the Oceania FIFA World Cup qualifiers have yet to be confirmed.
This story was first published on July 16, 2024.
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