The international qualifiers are a key part of every football tournament, allowing teams from around the world to fight for a place in a major event. The format of qualifying tournaments has changed over time, but the overall concept remains the same – teams are grouped into zones that roughly correspond to continents and then compete for a set number of berths within the zone.
The top team in each group qualifies for the finals automatically, while runners-up enter an inter-confederation play-off for a further four places at the tournament. Each of the groups will contain a team from each of FIFA’s five pots, but there are some restrictions on who can be drawn against each other and when.
Europe will have 16 places at the finals, Africa will have a minimum of nine and Asia eight with two berths from North/Central America and Oceania also available to winners of inter-confederation play-offs. The draw for the second phase of World Cup qualifying will take place on 28 March.
The next stage sees the 14 group winners from Nations League A through to D and the top three teams in each of the remaining OFC groups ranked one through to seven based on their FIFA rankings enter the knockout stages. The matches in this phase are played over two legs and ties are decided by head-to-head comparison, goal difference and a penalty shootout if necessary. Occasionally a tie cannot be resolved by either method so if the scores are level after 90 minutes extra time is used and then penalties if required.