2018_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA)
2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)
International football competition
The European section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Russia, for national teams that are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Apart from Russia, who qualified automatically as hosts, a total of 13 slots in the final tournament were available for UEFA teams.[1]
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 4 September 2016 – 14 November 2017 |
| Teams | 54 (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 278 |
| Goals scored | 807 (2.9 per match) |
| Attendance | 5,866,771 (21,103 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Robert Lewandowski(16 goals) |
← 2014 2022 → | |
The qualifying format was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 22–23 March 2015 in Vienna.[2][3]
The qualification process started on 4 September 2016, almost two months after UEFA Euro 2016, and ended on 14 November 2017. Belgium, England, France, Germany, Iceland (for the first time), Poland, Portugal, Serbia, and Spain qualified in the first round by winning their groups. Croatia, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland qualified by winning their playoffs.
Four-time champions Italy did not qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, missing out on qualification for the first time since 1958 after losing in the playoffs to Sweden,[4] while the three-time FIFA World Cup runners-up Netherlands did not qualify for the tournament for the first time since 2002 after finishing third in 2014,[5] and second in 2010. Iceland, with 335,000 inhabitants, became the smallest country ever to qualify for a FIFA World Cup.[6]
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.[7]
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. They appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to challenge FIFA's refusal to grant membership in order to enter World Cup qualifying.[8] 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.[9]
Kosovo became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016, and together with Gibraltar, applied for membership in the FIFA Congress in 12–13 May 2016. 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.[10]
On 13 May 2016, both Kosovo and Gibraltar were officially admitted as FIFA members, thus allowing them to compete.[11] UEFA created a task force to discuss how to integrate the two teams into the competition,[12] 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.[13][14]
The qualification structure was as follows:[3][15]
- First round (group stage): 54 teams were divided into nine groups of six teams each to play home-and-away round-robin matches. 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).
- Second round (play-offs): Eight best runners-up from the first round played against one other team over two legs, home and away. The draw for these matches was held on 17 October 2017. The first legs were played on 9–11 November, and the second legs were played on 12–14 November 2017. The winners of each tie qualified for the World Cup.
Qualifying matches started in September 2016, following UEFA Euro 2016, and finished in November 2017.[3][16]
|
|
The scheduling of qualifying matches, which were centralised by UEFA, followed the "Week of Football" concept first used for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying:[17]
- Matches take place from Thursday to 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.
- On double-header matchweeks, teams play on Thursday and Sunday, or Friday and Monday, or Saturday and Tuesday.
- Matches in the same group are played on the same day.
The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 26 July 2015, the day following the draw.[16][18]
Seeding
The draw for the first round (group stage) occurred as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.[16][19]
The seeding was based on the July 2015 FIFA World Rankings.[20] The 52 teams were seeded into six pots:
- Pot 1 contains the teams ranked 1–9.
- Pot 2 contains the teams ranked 10–18.
- Pot 3 contains the teams ranked 19–27.
- Pot 4 contains the teams ranked 28–36.
- Pot 5 contains the teams ranked 37–45.
- Pot 6 contains the teams ranked 46–52.
Each six-team group contained one team from each of the six pots, while each five-team group contained one team from each of the first five pots.[16]
Due to the centralisation of media rights for European qualifiers, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands were all drawn into six-team groups. Netherlands and France were drawn together in Group A, and Spain and Italy were drawn together in Group G.[16]
In consideration of the political relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, UEFA requested that FIFA maintain the current UEFA policy not to draw these teams into the same qualification groups (since the two teams were in the same seeding pot, this would not have happened regardless of the request).[16]
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
The football associations of Gibraltar and Kosovo became members of FIFA after the draw had taken place but before any games had been played. It was decided that both would be added to the World Cup qualifying process in Groups H and I, making those groups up to six teams each; due to the disputed political status of Kosovo, for security reasons, it was decided that Kosovo could not play against Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia, which meant Kosovo was added to Group I and Gibraltar to Group H.[13][14][21] Gibraltar and Spain had previously been kept separate from each other in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying as a result of the disputed status of Gibraltar.[22]
The hosts Russia were originally to be partnered with five-team Group H for friendlies.[23] However, with the admission of Kosovo and Gibraltar, all groups were filled to contain six teams and the Russia friendlies against Group H teams were cancelled. UEFA vice-president Hryhoriy Surkis said that the UEFA management would deal with the issue of finding opponents for Russia to play friendlies.[24]
Summary
Groups
| 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tiebreakers |
|---|
In league format, the ranking of teams in each group was based on the following criteria (regulations Articles 20.6 and 20.7):[25]
|
Group A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France |
10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 6 | +12 | 23 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–1 | 4–0 | 4–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | |
| 2 | Sweden |
10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 26 | 9 | +17 | 19 | Advance to second round | 2–1 | — | 1–1 | 3–0 | 8–0 | 4–0 | |
| 3 | Netherlands |
10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 12 | +9 | 19 | 0–1 | 2–0 | — | 3–1 | 5–0 | 4–1 | ||
| 4 | Bulgaria |
10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 19 | −5 | 13 | 0–1 | 3–2 | 2–0 | — | 4–3 | 1–0 | ||
| 5 | Luxembourg |
10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 26 | −18 | 6 | 1–3 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 1–1 | — | 1–0 | ||
| 6 | Belarus |
10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 21 | −15 | 5 | 0–0 | 0–4 | 1–3 | 2–1 | 1–1 | — |
Group B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portugal |
10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 32 | 4 | +28 | 27 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–0 | 3–0 | 5–1 | 4–1 | 6–0 | |
| 2 | Switzerland |
10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 23 | 7 | +16 | 27 | Advance to second round | 2–0 | — | 5–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | |
| 3 | Hungary |
10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 13 | 0–1 | 2–3 | — | 1–0 | 3–1 | 4–0 | ||
| 4 | Faroe Islands |
10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 16 | −12 | 9 | 0–6 | 0–2 | 0–0 | — | 0–0 | 1–0 | ||
| 5 | Latvia |
10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 18 | −11 | 7 | 0–3 | 0–3 | 0–2 | 0–2 | — | 4−0 | ||
| 6 | Andorra |
10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 23 | −21 | 4 | 0–2 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | — |
Group C
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany |
10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 4 | +39 | 30 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–0 | 3–0 | 6–0 | 5–1 | 7–0 | |
| 2 | Northern Ireland |
10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 6 | +11 | 19 | Advance to second round | 1–3 | — | 2–0 | 2–0 | 4–0 | 4–0 | |
| 3 | Czech Republic |
10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 10 | +7 | 15 | 1–2 | 0–0 | — | 2–1 | 0–0 | 5–0 | ||
| 4 | Norway |
10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 16 | +1 | 13 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | — | 2–0 | 4–1 | ||
| 5 | Azerbaijan |
10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 19 | −9 | 10 | 1–4 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | — | 5–1 | ||
| 6 | San Marino |
10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 51 | −49 | 0 | 0–8 | 0–3 | 0–6 | 0–8 | 0–1 | — |
Group D
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serbia |
10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 20 | 10 | +10 | 21 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–2 | 1–1 | 3–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 | |
| 2 | Republic of Ireland |
10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 19 | Advance to second round | 0–1 | — | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 2–0 | |
| 3 | Wales |
10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 17 | 1–1 | 0–1 | — | 1–0 | 1–1 | 4–0 | ||
| 4 | Austria |
10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 12 | +2 | 15 | 3–2 | 0–1 | 2–2 | — | 1–1 | 2–0 | ||
| 5 | Georgia |
10 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 14 | −6 | 5 | 1–3 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–2 | — | 1–1 | ||
| 6 | Moldova |
10 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 23 | −19 | 2 | 0–3 | 1–3 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 2–2 | — |
Group E
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poland |
10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 28 | 14 | +14 | 25 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 3–2 | 4–2 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 3–0 | |
| 2 | Denmark |
10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 8 | +12 | 20 | Advance to second round | 4–0 | — | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 4–1 | |
| 3 | Montenegro |
10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 20 | 12 | +8 | 16 | 1–2 | 0–1 | — | 1–0 | 4–1 | 5–0 | ||
| 4 | Romania |
10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 10 | +2 | 13 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–1 | — | 1–0 | 3–1 | ||
| 5 | Armenia |
10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 26 | −16 | 7 | 1–6 | 1–4 | 3–2 | 0–5 | — | 2–0 | ||
| 6 | Kazakhstan |
10 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 26 | −20 | 3 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–1 | — |
Group F
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | England |
10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 3 | +15 | 26 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 2–1 | 3–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | |
| 2 | Slovakia |
10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 17 | 7 | +10 | 18 | 0–1 | — | 3–0 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 3–0 | ||
| 3 | Scotland |
10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 12 | +5 | 18 | 2–2 | 1–0 | — | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | ||
| 4 | Slovenia |
10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 7 | +5 | 15 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–2 | — | 4–0 | 2–0 | ||
| 5 | Lithuania |
10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 20 | −13 | 6 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 0–3 | 2–2 | — | 2–0 | ||
| 6 | Malta |
10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 25 | −22 | 1 | 0–4 | 1–3 | 1–5 | 0–1 | 1–1 | — |
Group G
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spain |
10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 3 | +33 | 28 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 3–0 | 3–0 | 4–1 | 4–0 | 8–0 | |
| 2 | Italy |
10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 21 | 8 | +13 | 23 | Advance to second round | 1–1 | — | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 5–0 | |
| 3 | Albania |
10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 13 | −3 | 13 | 0–2 | 0–1 | — | 0–3 | 2–1 | 2–0 | ||
| 4 | Israel |
10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 15 | −5 | 12 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 0–3 | — | 0–1 | 2–1 | ||
| 5 | Macedonia |
10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 11 | 1–2 | 2–3 | 1–1 | 1–2 | — | 4–0 | ||
| 6 | Liechtenstein |
10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 39 | −38 | 0 | 0–8 | 0–4 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–3 | — |
Group H
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belgium |
10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 43 | 6 | +37 | 28 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 1–1 | 4–0 | 8–1 | 4–0 | 9–0 | |
| 2 | Greece |
10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 6 | +11 | 19 | Advance to second round | 1–2 | — | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 4–0 | |
| 3 | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 24 | 13 | +11 | 17 | 3–4 | 0–0 | — | 5–0 | 2–0 | 5–0 | ||
| 4 | Estonia |
10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 19 | −6 | 11 | 0–2 | 0–2 | 1–2 | — | 1–0 | 4–0 | ||
| 5 | Cyprus |
10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 18 | −9 | 10 | 0–3 | 1–2 | 3–2 | 0–0 | — | 3–1 | ||
| 6 | Gibraltar |
10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 47 | −44 | 0 | 0–6 | 1–4 | 0–4 | 0–6 | 1–2 | — |
Group I
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iceland |
10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 7 | +9 | 22 | Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup | — | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–2 | 2–0 | |
| 2 | Croatia |
10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 4 | +11 | 20 | Advance to second round | 2–0 | — | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | |
| 3 | Ukraine |
10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 9 | +4 | 17 | 1–1 | 0–2 | — | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | ||
| 4 | Turkey |
10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 13 | +1 | 15 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 2–2 | — | 2–0 | 2–0 | ||
| 5 | Finland |
10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 13 | −4 | 9 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–2 | — | 1–1 | ||
| 6 | Kosovo |
10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 24 | −21 | 1 | 1–2 | 0–6 | 0–2 | 1–4 | 0–1 | — |
Ranking of second-placed teams
When the draw was made, groups H and I had one team fewer than the other groups so it was decided that matches against the last-placed team in each of the six-team groups would not be included in the ranking of the second-placed teams even after the admission of Kosovo and Gibraltar.[26] As a result, only eight matches played by each team were counted in the second-placed table.
The eight best runners-up were determined by the following parameters, in this order:[27]
- Highest number of points
- Goal difference
- Highest number of goals scored
- Fair play points
- Drawing of lots
| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | B | Switzerland |
8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 6 | +12 | 21 | Advance to second round (play-offs) |
| 2 | G | Italy |
8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 8 | +4 | 17 | |
| 3 | E | Denmark |
8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 14 | |
| 4 | I | Croatia |
8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 14 | |
| 5 | A | Sweden |
8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 18 | 9 | +9 | 13 | |
| 6 | C | Northern Ireland |
8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 13 | |
| 7 | H | Greece |
8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 13 | |
| 8 | D | Republic of Ireland |
8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 13 | |
| 9 | F | Slovakia |
8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 6 | +5 | 12 |
The eight best group runners-up contested the second round, where they were paired into four two-legged (home-and-away) fixtures.
Seeding and draw
The draw for the second round (play-offs) was held on 17 October 2017, 14:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland.[30] The eight teams were seeded by FIFA World Rankings published on 16 October 2017, rather than qualifying record, with the top four teams in Pot 1, and the remaining four teams in Pot 2. It so happened that the top four teams by qualifying record were the same as the top four by FIFA World Ranking. Teams from Pot 1 played teams from Pot 2 on a home and away basis, with the order of legs decided by draw.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
|---|---|
| Switzerland (11) Italy (15) Croatia (18) Denmark (19) |
Northern Ireland (23) Sweden (25) Republic of Ireland (26) Greece (47) |
Matches
The first legs were played on 9–11 November, and the second legs were played on 12–14 November 2017. The winners of each tie qualified for the World Cup.
The following 14 teams from UEFA qualified for the final tournament.
- 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
- 2 Competed as Soviet Union.
- 3 Competed as West Germany. A separate team for East Germany also participated in qualifications during this time, having only competed in 1974.
There were 807 goals scored in 278 matches, for an average of 2.9 goals per match.
16 goals
15 goals
11 goals
9 goals
8 goals
7 goals
6 goals
Below are full goalscorer lists for all groups and the play-off rounds:
UEFA unveiled the branding for the qualifiers on 15 April 2013. It shows a national jersey inside a heart, and represents Europe, honour and ambition. The same branding was also used for the European qualifiers for the UEFA Euro 2016.[31]
- "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup confederation slots maintained". FIFA.com. 30 May 2015. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
- "Executive Committee date in Vienna". UEFA.org. 21 March 2015.
- "New distribution concept for club competitions approved". UEFA.org. 23 March 2015.
- AFP. "Italy Miss Out on FIFA World Cup For the First Time Since 1958". News 18. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
- "A win for the Netherlands, but not enough to secure World Cup qualification". Sydney Morning Herald. 11 October 2017. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017.
- "Iceland become smallest nation ever to qualify for World Cup finals". The Guadian. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
- "Road to Russia with new milestone". FIFA.com. 15 January 2015. Archived from the original on 15 January 2015.
- "Gibraltar appeal to court for Fifa recognition to enter World Cup qualifying". The Guardian. 12 February 2015.
- "FIFA Council agrees on four-phase bidding process for 2026 FIFA World Cup". FIFA.com. 10 May 2016. Archived from the original on 10 May 2016.
- "Kosovo, Gibraltar join FIFA before 2018 World Cup qualifying". The Washington Post. 13 May 2016. Archived from the original on 14 May 2016.
- "Timeline for UEFA Presidential elections decided". UEFA. 18 May 2016. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
- "Kosovo to play in Group I in European Qualifiers". uefa.org. Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). 9 June 2016.
- "Kosovo and Gibraltar assigned to 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying groups". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). 9 June 2016. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016.
- "Draw Procedures – European Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2015.
- "FIFA World Cup qualifying draw format". UEFA.com. 16 June 2015. Archived from the original on 26 June 2016.
- "UEFA announces deals for European qualifiers". UEFA.org. 10 April 2013. Archived from the original on 23 October 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- "World Cup European Qualifiers fixtures confirmed". UEFA.com. 26 July 2015.
- "European teams learn World Cup qualifying fate". UEFA.com. 25 July 2015.
- "FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – July 2015 (UEFA)". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 9 July 2015. Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- "Gibraltar komt in kwalificatiegroep van Rode Duivels voor WK" (in Dutch). 9 June 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
- "Gibraltar and Spain kept apart in Euro 2016 draw". Yahoo Sports. Reuters. 24 January 2014.
- "Commercial regulations for the European qualifying matches for UEFA EURO 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup" (PDF). UEFA.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2013.
- "UEFA sets up commission on Kosovo, Gibraltar participation in 2018 World Cup qualifiers". tass.ru. Russian News Agency TASS. 18 May 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
- "Regulations – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia" (PDF). FIFA.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016.
- "Focus switches to World Cup qualifying". UEFA.com. 22 August 2016.
- "As it stands: ranking of second-placed teams". UEFA.com. 3 October 2017.
- "Competition format - FIFA World Cup - News - UEFA.com". uefa.com. UEFA. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- "As it stands: ranking of second-placed teams". UEFA.com. 3 October 2017.
- "FIFA World Cup European play-off draw to take place on 17 October". FIFA.com. 6 September 2017. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017.
- "European qualifiers branding launched". UEFA. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
- Official FIFA World Cup website
- Qualifiers – Europe, FIFA.com
- FIFA World Cup, UEFA.com