LAUSANNE, November 28. /TASS/. The Russian national football team has been excluded from next month’s UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) qualifying draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to the FIFA press office’s statement released on Thursday.

The UEFA Preliminary Draw for the FIFA 2026 World Cup is scheduled to be held at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, on December 13, 2024.

"Following the publication of the FIFA Men's World Ranking earlier today, the seedings and procedures for the UEFA Preliminary Draw for the FIFA World Cup 26 have been confirmed," FIFA’s statement reads.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The matches will be played in 16 cities across the three continents. This will be the first FIFA World Cup featuring 48 teams, compared to the previous 32-team format.

"UEFA Nations League quarter-finalists Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain and will be joined in Pot 1 by top-ranked UEFA nations England, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria, who are in the top pot for the first time since the qualifiers for the 1986 FIFA World Cup," according to FIFA.

"The remaining teams are allocated to pots 2 to 5 according to the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Ranking, with Slovakia’s win over Estonia and Czechia’s win over Georgia ensuring them both a spot in pot 2," the statement reads.

According to UEFA’s Preliminary Draw the pots selection is as follows:

Pot 1: France, Spain, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria.

Pot 2: Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey, Wales, Hungary, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Greece, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Norway.

Pot 3: Scotland, Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, North Macedonia, Georgia, Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Israel

Pot 4: Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Belarus, Kosovo, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Latvia and Lithuania

Pot 5: Moldova, Malta, Andorra, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino.

Russia’s football ban

The International Association Football Federation (FIFA) announced on February 28, 2022 that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from taking part in FIFA tournaments.

In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision in regard to the Russian national football team’s participation in UEFA tournaments.

Both FIFA and UEFA cited Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as grounds for their respective bans on Russian teams’ participation in competitions.

Since sanctions were introduced, the Russian national football squad has played a host of friendlies against other countries, namely against Kyrgyzstan (2-1), Tajikistan (0-0), Uzbekistan (0-0), Iran (1-1), Iraq (2-0), Cameroon (1-0), Kenya (2-2), Cuba (8-0), Serbia (4-0), Belarus 4-0 Vietnam (3-0), Brunei (11-0) and Syria (4-0).