Draw
editThe draw for the first round (group stage) will be held in December 2024. Of UEFA's 55 member associations, 54 men's national teams are eligible to enter the competition, while Russia is currently suspended from UEFA and FIFA competitions due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.[1]
The teams will be seeded into five pots: Pots 1 to 4 will each contain twelve teams, and Pot 5 will contain six teams. FIFA, in consultation with UEFA, will announce the allocation of teams to the five pots following the completion of the league phase of the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League. The teams will be drawn into twelve groups: six groups of four teams (Groups A–F) and six groups of five teams (Groups G–L).
Following changes to the UEFA qualifying format, the competition will feature staggered starting dates. Five-team groups will begin in March 2025, while four-team groups will start in September 2025. As 24 teams will be competing in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League in March 2025 (8 in the League A quarter-finals and 12 in the promotion/relegation play-offs), significant changes were made to the seeding and draw procedures to accommodate all teams within the schedule.
Seeding method
editFive-team groups can only contain one team participating in Nations League matches in March 2025, allowing these teams' two free matchdays in World Cup qualifying to be scheduled during March. The remaining four teams in their group will play among themselves during this window. Additionally, as the four quarter-final winners will compete in the 2025 UEFA Nations League Finals in June, they cannot begin World Cup qualifying until September and must therefore be drawn into four-team groups.
Given these conditions, Pot 1 will contain the eight Nations League quarter-finalists, regardless of their position in the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2024. The quarter-finalists will be represented by placeholders in the draw, denoting the winners and losers of each quarter-final pairing.[note 1] The four remaining teams in Pot 1 will be the next best-ranked teams in the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2024. In principle, the remaining teams will be allocated to Pots 2 to 5 based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking. However, adjustments to Pots 2 to 5 may be required depending on the number of teams needing the March 2025 window for the Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs.
Should a given draw pot include more Nations League play-off teams than the maximum number of qualifying groups able to contain such teams, a pot adjustment will be made. This adjustment will follow these principles:
- A pot swap will be made between the lowest-ranked Nations League play-off participant of the pot in question and the highest-ranked compatible team of the lower pot.
- The same procedure applies if an additional swap is required in the same pot or another pot.
This seeding method differs from previous cycles, as all World Cup qualifying group draws since 2010 have been seeded based solely on the FIFA Men's World Ranking.
Draw procedure
editThe draw will start with Pot 1 and complete with Pot 5. A team will be drawn and assigned to the first available group (based on draw conditions) in alphabetical order. Each five-team group will contain one team from each of the five pots, while each four-team group will contain one team from each of the first four pots.
The following restrictions will be applied with computer assistance:
- Competition-related reasons:
- The four teams participating in the 2025 UEFA Nations League Finals (identified as the winners of quarter-finals 1–4) will be guaranteed to be drawn into four-team groups (Groups A–F).
- Depending on the pot distribution of Nations League play-off teams, Pot 1 teams not involved in Nations League matches in March may need to be drawn into five-team groups (Groups G–L).[note 2]
- Nations League play-off teams from Pots 2 to 4 are prioritised for allocation to four-team groups (Groups A–F).[note 3] If a play-off team is in Pot 5, they will be drawn into a five-team group (Groups G–L) capable of accommodating such a team.
- Additionally, teams not involved in Nations League matches in March from Pots 2 to 4 may be required to be drawn into five-team groups (Groups G–L) to ensure a sufficient number of groups are available to contain Nations League play-off teams from the same or subsequent pots.[note 4]
- Prohibited clashes: For political reasons, matches between the following pairs of teams are considered prohibited clashes and cannot be drawn into the same group: Armenia–Azerbaijan, Belarus–Ukraine, Gibraltar–Spain, Kosovo–Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo–Serbia.
- Winter venues: A maximum of two teams whose venues are identified as having high or medium risk of severe winter conditions can be placed in each group: Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Ukraine.
- Excessive travel: A maximum of one pair of teams identified with excessive travel distance in relation to other countries can be placed in each group:
- Azerbaijan: with Gibraltar, Iceland, Portugal.
- Iceland: with Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel.
- Kazakhstan: with Andorra, England, Faroe Islands, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales.
Draw pots
editTeams were allocated to seeding pots as follows:
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Schedule
editThe two "hard winter venues", Faroe Islands and Iceland, generally cannot host games in March or November; the others shall play as few home matches as possible in March and November.
- ^ "FIFA/UEFA suspend Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions". FIFA. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
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