The play-offs will determine the final four European teams that will join the twelve group winners at the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The winner of the four path finals will qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The participants will not be decided solely on the results of the first round, with four of the spots allocated to group winners of the 2024–25 edition of the UEFA Nations League.
[4] The table below shows the order in which teams will be selected based on the UEFA Nations League interim overall ranking.
The twelve group runners-up will be allocated to pots 1 to 3, with seeding based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November 2025.
For political reasons, matches between the following pairs of teams are considered prohibited clashes and cannot be drawn into the same play-off path: Armenia–Azerbaijan, Belarus–Ukraine, Gibraltar–Spain, Kosovo–Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo–Serbia.
However, yellow card suspensions accumulated at the end of the qualifying group stage will still be carried forward to the play-off semi-finals.