UEFA issued an official statement in which it touched on many significant topics. Among other things, it was informed o , which is supposed to be the organization’s response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. From the Polish point of view, however, something else is important. The rules for qualifying for the World Cup have also changed.
Will the Polish national team have a harder time during the qualifiers for the World Cup and Euro? UEFA changed the rules
The first visible change, which will apply from the qualifiers to the 2026 World Cup, is the reduction in the number of participants in the groups. Until now, the ten groups had six or five national teams each. Now it will look a bit different.
The new format of the European qualifiers for the European Championship or the FIFA World Cup will be more consolidated, with teams drawn in 12 groups of 4 and 5, which in turn will liven up the competition, making it less predictable and more dynamic. Therefore, the Polish national team will most likely meet theoretically stronger rivals. The winners of the European qualifying groups will advance directly to the Euro or the World Cup, so it will be much more difficult (in the last Euro 2020 qualifying, the second place was already a promotion).
According to the new rules, second places will give direct promotion in the case of cadres in four-team groups. For the teams that will be in the five-team group, it will be advisable to participate in the play-off matches (together with the League of Nations teams). Until now, the two best teams from each group were directly promoted to the European Championships. However, this gives only 20 teams out of 24 that went to the final tournament. The remaining four teams were selected in the play-off phase through the League of Nations.
UEFA also announces that the teams drawn in groups of five will start qualifiers in March or June if they are still competing in the quarter-finals of the Nations League or in the promotion/relegation matches. Teams drawn in groups of four will start their struggles only in September.
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The rise of the League of Nations
The League of Nations will also be much more important. In the future, maybe even she will decide to qualify for the world championships to a large extent.
– The introduction of the Nations League was a success, replacing friendlies with more competitive matches. And now, with the introduction of the new Knockout Stage, teams will have even more opportunities to advance while keeping the same number of matches on the international calendar. The predictability of European qualifiers has also been addressed with a fresh new format that will ensure all teams have an equal chance of qualifying for the major tournaments. The new format is intended to bring more excitement to European football competitions, which are still going from strength to strength, said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin.
48 national teams will take part in the 2026 World Cup, of which 16 will be from Europe. So far, 13 teams from the Old Continent went to the World Cup. This means that they will increase the chance of promotion for such teams that failed to qualify for the tournament in Qatar. Among them are the European champions from 2020, Italy, or even Sweden, Ukraine or Ireland.
Source: Sport
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