The international qualifiers you and your children are likely to hear most often are words like definitely, certainly, most likely, sometimes, maybe – they’re used a lot when talking about facts and opinions. But there are lots of other contexts where qualifying words can be useful, too. In this article we’ll be looking at some of these contexts, and exploring how you can use the word qualifier to help your children understand what they’re hearing in different situations.
In football, qualifying is the set of competitive matches that a national association football team has to play in order to compete at a world cup final tournament. This is usually organised by the confederation that oversees the team (i.e. FIFA for men’s clubs, or UEFA for European teams). In each qualification phase, teams from the six continental zones compete to win a fixed number of berths at the final tournament.
The berths available are based on the current ranking of each national association, which is determined after every competition that involves a world cup qualifier. Generally, the lowest ranked teams are given the most difficult draws, while the best ranked teams are allocated to the easiest. If two or more teams have the same ranking, tiebreakers such as head-to-head comparison and goal difference are applied to determine who will qualify.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers was held in Zurich on 13 December 2024. The groups involving teams that played UEFA Nations League quarter-final ties were only finalised after those ties took place in March, and so they are currently placeholders for the rest of the qualifiers. This means there is no guarantee that England and Switzerland will be in a group with a PO team from Pot 3, but the likelihood is 75%.