Northern Ireland’s pathway to the World Cup finals next summer will be laid out tomorrow.
Michael O’Neill’s team are two play-off games away from competing at the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament in USA, Canada and Mexico.
And the draw for those play-offs is taking place tomorrow in Switzerland. It will determine the eight play-off semi-finals and four potential final match-ups next spring. The semi-finals are due to be played on 26 March, with the finals on 31 March.
The play-offs will ultimately decide the four teams that will join the 12 European teams that have already qualified from the group stage at next year’s World Cup.
The 16 teams in the play-offs include the 12 runners-up in the group stage of the European qualifiers and the four best-ranked teams from last year’s UEFA Nations League who failed to finish in the top-two in the first qualifying round.
Tomorrow’s draw at FIFA headquarters in Zurich - it begins at noon GMT - will split the teams into four pots.
Each of the four paths in the play-offs will feature one team from Pot 1, one from Pot 2, one from Pot 3 and one from Pot 4. And each path will feature semi-finals and a final.
The semi-finals (a single leg knockout match) will see the Pot 1 team face the Pot 4 team, and the Pot 2 team face the Pot 3 team, with the Pot 1 and 2 teams at home.
The two semi-final winners from each path will then meet in the final (with home advantage to be decided in the initial draw) and the winner of that encounter qualifies for the World Cup.
For the draw the 12 qualifying group runners-up in Europe have been ranked 1st to 12th on the basis of the latest FIFA Men's World Ranking.
Northern Ireland, who qualified for the play-offs via the Nations League route, will face one of the following Pot 1 teams away from home in a semi-final: Denmark, Italy, Turkey or Ukraine.
The Pot 2 teams in the draw are Poland, Wales, Czechia and Slovakia, while the Pot 3 teams are Republic of Ireland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Joining Northern Ireland in Pot 4 are Romania, Sweden and North Macedonia. They all qualified for the play-offs via the Nations League route.
The position of each team in the latest FIFA Coca-Cola World Rankings is as follows: 9th – Italy; 20th – Denmark; 26th – Turkey; 27th – Ukraine; 33rd – Poland; 34th – Wales; 40th – Sweden; 44th – Czechia; 46th – Slovakia; 47th – Romania; 61st – Albania; 62nd – Republic of Ireland; 65th – North Macedonia; 69th – Northern Ireland; 75th – Bosnia and Herzegovina; 84th – Kosovo.
The 12 direct qualifiers for the World Cup from Europe are: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland.
