#2018 european world cup qualifiers how to#
#2018 european world cup qualifiers registration#

The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 26 July 2015, the day following the draw.

Matches in the same group are played on the same day.

On double-header matchweeks, teams play on Thursday and Sunday, or Friday and Monday, or Saturday and Tuesday.

Kick-off times are largely set at 18:00 and 20:45 CET/CEST on Saturdays and Sundays, and 20:45 CET/CEST on Thursdays, Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays.

Matches take place from Thursday to Tuesday.

The scheduling of qualifying matches, which were centralised by UEFA, followed the 'Week of Football' concept first used for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying: Qualifying matches started in September 2016, following UEFA Euro 2016, and finished in November 2017. The winners of each tie qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The first legs were played on 9вЂ“11 November, and the second legs were played on 12вЂ“14 November 2017. The draw for these matches was held on 17 October 2017.

Second round (play-offs): The eight best runners-up from the first round played against one other team over two legs, home and away.

The winners of each group qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the eight best runners-up advanced to the second round (play-offs).

First round (group stage): The 54 teams were divided into nine groups of six teams each to play home-and-away round-robin matches.

The qualification structure was as follows:

#2018 european world cup qualifiers how to#

UEFA created a task force to discuss how to integrate the two teams into the competition, and on 9 June 2016 UEFA announced that Kosovo would be assigned to Group I, to avoid meeting Bosnia and Herzegovina for security reasons, and Gibraltar would play in Group H. On, both Kosovo and Gibraltar were officially admitted as FIFA members, thus allowing them to compete. FIFA confirmed that in the case both associations succeeded in becoming a member, they would be entitled to participate in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, with UEFA tasked to integrate them into the competition. Kosovo became a UEFA member on, and together with Gibraltar, applied for membership in the FIFA Congress in 12вЂ“. In May 2016, the CAS found in Gibraltar's favour and ordered that FIFA put Gibraltar forward for FIFA membership, which would permit Gibraltar to take part in the qualifiers if membership was granted. They appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to challenge FIFA's refusal to grant membership in order to enter World Cup qualifying.

#2018 european world cup qualifiers registration#

Gibraltar, despite being a UEFA member since 2013, was not a FIFA member at the time of the registration deadline, and thus was not eligible to enter qualification for the FIFA World Cup. Apart from Russia, which qualified automatically as hosts, all remaining 52 FIFA-affiliated national teams from UEFA at the registration deadline of January 2015 entered qualification.