The qualifying groups for the FIFA Men’s World Cup were drawn on Friday in Zurich, Switzerland. The World Cup competitions will be played in 2026 in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
13:58•Updated 16:03
In the World Cup qualifiers, the Finnish men’s national football team was drawn into Group G, where the loser of the Nations League quarter-final match between Spain and the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and Malta will play. The European qualifying groups for the 2026 World Cup were drawn on Friday in Zurich, Switzerland. Finland was drawn in the three basket.
Sports expert Antti Pohja considers Poland to be Finland’s main opponent, as either Spain or the Netherlands are the preliminary favorites for the group. Poland is the second favorite.
– This is a group from which – if Finland gets its game in order – the possibilities for the continuation are realistic. Second place is a realistic goal, but it requires overcoming Poland, Lithuania and Malta must be wiped out instead, Pohja said while watching the draw.
54 teams were drawn into 12 groups consisting of either five or four teams. The five-team groups, such as Huuhkajie’s G-group, will start the qualifiers in March 2025. The four-team groups will start their World Cup qualifiers in September 2025.
The Finnish team currently does not have a head coach, because Markku Kanerva got fired at the end of November. The Swedish Football Association has said that the new head coach will be announced in mid-January. According to Pohja, it would be good if Finland could start its World Cup qualification ahead of the smaller countries, so to speak.
– A good match schedule for Finland would be one where Malta and Lithuania would meet twice, before the main opponents Poland and Spain or Holland would meet. Then Finland would be able to develop its game and would have suitably sized “training opponents”, Pohja said.
The winner of the Spain-Netherlands match will play in Group E, where Turkey, Georgia and Bulgaria will meet. According to Pohja, the Finnish group is probably easier.
– Many would certainly prefer to take the Finnish block. If you don’t look through blue and white glasses, Finland is probably a good opponent for many teams in their current form.
16 countries from Europe can make it to the final tournament of the World Cup. The group winners of the qualifiers advance directly to the World Championships, the remaining four places go to the best of the further qualifiers. The group runners-up of the World Cup qualifiers and the best-ranked group winners of the Nations League, who did not place in the top two in their qualifying groups, qualify for the further qualifiers.
The World Cup tournament will be played from June 11 to July 19, 2026 in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Update at 2:15 p.m.: Added Antti Pohja’s comments and updated the title.