The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 England vs Latvia World Cup qualifier.

The 2026 World Cup, which is taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, begins on June 11 next year. It will be the 23rd edition of the tournament and the first with 48 countries competing.

Qualification around the globe is nearing completion as teams battle to reach the world’s biggest sporting event.

Advertisement

Which countries have already secured their spot in North America next summer? How many places are awarded to each continental confederation? How far into the qualification process are those six regions?

Here is The Athletic’s guide to the state of play, which will be updated as qualification progresses.

How many teams from each confederation will be at the World Cup?

Here are the six confederations — which represent every FIFA-recognised country in the world — and how many places each has been allocated at the tournament:

AFC (Asia): Eight direct places and one team will compete in the inter-confederation play-offs.

CAF (Africa): Nine direct places and one team will compete in the inter-confederation play-offs.

CONCACAF (North America, Central America & Caribbean): Three direct places and two teams will compete in the inter-confederation play-offs. This excludes hosts United States, Canada and Mexico, who all automatically qualified as co-hosts.

USMNT have already qualified for the World Cup as co-hosts (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

CONMEBOL (South America): Six direct places and one team will compete in the inter-confederation play-offs.

OFC (Oceania): One direct place and one team will compete in the inter-confederation play-offs.

UEFA (Europe): Sixteen direct places.

The inter-confederation play-offs, which are set to take place in March 2026, will involve six teams, and two of them will advance to the World Cup. Oceania’s New Caledonia and South America’s Bolivia are the only sides guaranteed to be competing in the play-offs right now.

Which countries have qualified?

United States (North America)

Previous World Cup appearances: 11

Best performance: Third place in 1930

Head coach: Mauricio Pochettino

The United States are hosting the World Cup for the second time — the first was in 1994 — and under former Tottenh