The tournament will consist of 32 national teams – with host nation Russia joined by 31 qualifiers from across the globe. The current holders no longer qualify automatically. Germany were the victors and will be looking to book their ticket as soon as possible, while runners-up Argentina is making hard work of it in South America’s marathon qualifying campaign. Then four or five will join from Asia, three or four from North America, four or five from South America and either none or one from Oceania. That is all dependant on the inter-confederation playoff results, with the teams who failed to qualify outright pit against each other between November 6 and November 14, 2017.
