ZURICH: Iraq will have to beat Bolivia or Suriname in a one-game playoff next March to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Iraq were seeded in a six-nation draw on Thursday at FIFA headquarters for the intercontinental playoffs that will send two teams to the 48-nation tournament co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Congo were seeded in the other intercontinental playoffs bracket and will play the winner of a single-game semifinal between New Caledonia and Jamaica.
A separate draw for European playoffs brackets in March — involving 16 teams, including four-time champion Italy, playing for four World Cup places — was being made minutes later at FIFA.
The six intercontinental playoff games will be staged in Mexico from March 23-31 at stadiums in Guadalajara and Monterrey, which each will host four World Cup games next June.
A total of six teams will advance from the two sets of playoffs in March to complete the first 48-nation lineup.
The other 42 teams were confirmed this week when qualifying groups and playoff games were completed on four continents.
The World Cup draw is on Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. There, the six unconfirmed playoffs teams will be drawn as placeholders and should come out of the pot of lowest-ranked teams in the seeded draw.
A penalty scored by Iraq in the 17th minute of stoppage time against the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday sent coach Graham Arnold’s team through to the global playoffs. Iraq’s 2-1 win in Basra sealed a 3-2 victory in the two-leg Asian playoff.
Iraq’s only World Cup appearance was in 1986, and Arnold coached his home nation Australia at the 2022 tournament in Qatar, reaching the round of 16.
New Caledonia are the lowest-ranked team in the playoffs, at No. 149 of the 211 FIFA member countries.
New Caledonia effectively advanced to the playoffs by beating Tahiti 3-0 in March, before losing the Oceania qualifying final against New Zealand.
Coach Johann Sidaner’s team have played just one game since, beating Gibraltar in a friendly last month.