{"id":64350,"date":"2025-11-19T17:16:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T17:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup"},"modified":"2025-11-19T18:04:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:04:05","slug":"42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup","title":{"rendered":"42 nations secure their spots for the 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The race to qualify for the 2026 World Cup has reached a major milestone, with 42 nations now officially booked for the tournament in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Europe delivered the loudest finish last night as Scotland, Austria, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland punched their tickets during the final round of UEFA qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p>Four European places remain undecided and will be settled in the spring playoffs. Across the Atlantic, CONCACAF also wrapped up its direct qualifications. Panama, Haiti, and Curac\u0327ao clinched their spots, adding to a rapidly growing list that now spans all six football confederations.<\/p>\n<p>With Africa, Asia, South America, and Oceania having completed their qualifying phases earlier, the global picture is becoming clearer as the expanded 48-team World Cup draws nearer. The 42 countries already qualified for the 2026 World Cup<\/p>\n<p>Host nations: Canada, United States, Mexico<br \/>\nAfrica: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Senegal<br \/>\nNorth &amp; Central America: Panama, Haiti, Curac\u0327ao<br \/>\nSouth America: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay<br \/>\nAsia: Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Jordan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia<br \/>\nEurope: France, Croatia, England, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria<br \/>\nOceania: New Zealand<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The race to qualify for the 2026 World Cup has reached a major milestone, with 42 nations now officially booked for the tournament in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Europe delivered the loudest finish last night as Scotland, Austria, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland punched their tickets during the final round of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":64349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-64350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>42 nations secure their spots for the 2026 World Cup - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The race to qualify for the 2026 World Cup has reached a major milestone, with 42 nations now officially booked for the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"42 nations secure their spots for the 2026 World Cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The race to qualify for the 2026 World Cup has reached a major milestone, with 42 nations now officially booked for the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-19T17:16:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-19T18:04:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1763562636.039236.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"478\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"42 nations secure their spots for the 2026 World Cup\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-19T17:16:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-19T18:04:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup\"},\"wordCount\":213,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1763562636.039236.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/42-nations-secure-their-spots-for-the-2026-world-cup\",\"name\":\"42 nations secure their spots for the 2026 World Cup - 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