Currently, only 7 teams officially won tickets, including 3 host countries (Canada, Mexico and the US), along with New Zealand, Japan, Iran and Argentina. The qualifying process to select the remaining 41 will continue to take place in the coming months, and expected to be completed at the end of March 2026.
However, before the full list was identified, FIFA announced the decision to remove suspension sentence for the Republic of Congo, opening up opportunities for this African nation to continue competing for the World Cup next summer.
Congo was suspended in February 2025 due to third -party intervention in the activities of the Congo Football Federation (FeCofoot). Due to this penalty, 2 matches of their 2026 World Cup with Tanzania and Zambia, scheduled to be held in March 2025, was postponed.
However, FIFA has now confirmed that the necessary conditions to remove the suspension command have been met and issued an official statement as follows: “The executive department of the FIFA Council decided on May 14, 2025 on the removal of suspension command applied to the Congo football federation (FeCofoot), which was issued on February 6, 2025”.
“The decision is made after the conditions requested by the Council for suspension have been met, including the return of FeCofoot headquarters, Ignié Technical Center and other facilities to the Feecofoot Executive Committee by Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas and his team.”
There has not been an official announcement about the time of re -organizing the delayed matches, but with the fact that Congo is standing at the end of the qualifying table, the possibility of them participating in the 2026 World Cup is still very low.
The 4 last 4 matches in the qualifying campaign will take place in September and October, before the African play-off round was held in November.
