The Oceanian section of the

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will decide the 45 teams that will join hosts Canada men's national soccer team, Canada, Mexico national football team, Mexico, and the United States men's national soccer team, United States at the 2026 FIFA ...

process took place from 6 September 2024 to 24 March 2025. The 2026 tournament was the 16th edition of Oceanian qualifiers and marked the first time OFC had a direct qualification slot into the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

. On 24 March 2025, the Oceanian confederation qualification ended with

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

directly qualifying to the

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

qualifying to the inter-continental play-offs.

Format

The qualification structure was as follows: *First round: The four lowest-ranked teams in the

FIFA Men's World Ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their gam ...

s played a three-match knockout round in September 2024. The winner advanced to the second round. *Second round: The winning team from the first round joined the seven highest-ranked teams in two four-team groups in October and November 2024. The top two teams from each group advanced to the third round. *Third round: The four teams advancing from the second round played a three-match knockout round in March 2025 with the winner qualifying for the

2026 World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will take pl ...

and the runner-up advancing to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Entrants

All eleven eligible OFC nations entered qualification. * * * * * * * * * * *

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows. The inter-confederation play-offs are scheduled to be played in March 2026.

Draw

The draw for the first two rounds was held at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland on 18 July from 9:00 CEST (UTC+2). Although announced prior to their official release, the seeding for the draw was based on the

FIFA Men's World Rankings The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their gam ...

of 18 July 2024 (shown in parentheses below). For the first round, the four lowest-ranked teams competed in a single-elimination play-off to determine which team advanced to the second round. The highest-ranked team faced the lowest-ranked team and the second-ranked team faced the third-ranked team in the semi-finals, and the winners of those matches faced each other in the final. For the second round, each group contained one team from Pot 1, two from Pot 2 and one from Pot 3 (which also included a placeholder for the first round winner).

First round

First round matches were played 6–9 September 2024 in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

. The four lowest-ranked teams competed in a knockout series, and the winner advanced to join the seven highest-ranked teams in the second round.

Bracket

Matchday 1

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Matchday 2

The winner advanced to the second round.

Second round

The second round took place from 10 October to 18 November 2024 with two groups of four teams playing each other once in a league format. Matches were played in

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

Group A

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Group B

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Third round

The third round took place in New Zealand on 21 and 24 March 2025. The winner qualified for the

and the runner-up advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Bracket

New Zealand defeated New Caledonia 3–0 and qualified for the

. New Caledonia advanced to the inter-continental playoffs.

Semi-finals

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Final

The winner qualified for the

. The loser advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Inter-confederation play-offs

The runner up team,

, will join one team each from AFC, CAF, and

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

and two from

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

in the inter-confederation play-offs. The teams will be ranked according to the

, with the four lowest-ranked teams playing in two matches. The winners will meet the two highest-ranked teams in another set of matches, with the winners of these matches qualifying for the

Qualified teams

The following teams from OFC qualified for the final tournament.

Goalscorers

Discipline

A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following infractions: * Receiving a red card (red card suspensions may be extended for serious infractions) * Receiving two yellow cards in two different matches (yellow card suspensions are carried forward to further qualification rounds, but not the finals or any other future international matches) The following suspensions were served during qualification:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FIFA World Cup qualificiation OFC 2026 OFC

2026 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 – Bulgaria is expected to adopt the euro and become the 21st member state of the eurozone. * January 6 – The 2025 Jubilee will end on this day. * February 5 – The New START Treat ...

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