Good for Italy! FIFA will change the team classification principle for teams that qualify for the World Cup in the play-offs!

November 09 According to foreign media FootballMeetsData, FIFA will change the tiering principle for teams that advance to the 2026 World Cup through the play-offs!

Foreign media FootballMeetsData originally wrote

In the 2022 Qatar World Cup, all teams that advance through the play-offs, regardless of their FIFA points, will automatically be classified in the fourth tier.

But for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA is likely to change this rule and will classify all 6 play-off qualifying teams (4 from Europe and 2 from the intercontinental play-offs) according to the ranking of the highest-ranked team in the world in each play-off group!

This means that the expected classification of the 2026 World Cup will undergo a huge shock!

The specific changes are as follows:

Italy (or the team that qualified from its play-off group) will now be promoted from the fourth tier to the first tier! Germany will now move down to second gear! Austria will now drop to third gear! Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Nigeria (or teams from their play-off groups) will now move up from Pot 4 to Pot 3!

Tunisia, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa will now be reduced to the fourth gear!

According to the picture, excluding the three host teams from the United States, Canada and Mexico, Italy is currently ranked 12th and belongs to the first pot.

Germany is currently ranked 13th and belongs to the second pot.

Austria is currently ranked 25th and belongs to the third pot.

Related reports: Official: The World Cup play-off draw ceremony will be held on November 20 this year.