The 2026 Men's Rugby League World Cup qualification will decide the teams that will join the
quarter-finalists from the
previous World Cup at the
2026 Rugby League World Cup
The 2026 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2026) is a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league and is a replacement tournament for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.
Like 2021, the 2026 World Cup will see the men's, women's, and wheelcha ...
. The location of the tournament is still yet to be announced.
Qualification will begin in 2024 with European qualification tournament.
Background
The allocation of teams for the 2026 World Cup was announced on 7 August 2023. The 2026 edition of the Rugby League World Cup will only feature ten men's teams, down from 16 in
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
. The eight quarter-finalists from the previous World Cup achieved automatic qualification, leaving two spots remaining for the qualification process.
The qualification process for the 9th and 10th places will be a two stage process. The first stage is to establish the representatives from each of the four
International Rugby League
The International Rugby League (IRL) is the global governing body for the sport of rugby league football. Previously known as the ''Rugby League Imperial Board'', the '' International Rugby League Board'' and latterly the ''Rugby League Internat ...
(IRL) confederations (Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Middle East-Africa) with those representatives advancing to the second and final round of qualification, the World Series to be played in 2025.
The process announced in August 2023 would have seen qualifying tournaments in all four confederations but subsequent changes by the IRL have changed this. In October 2023 IRL confirmed that only full members of the IRL can take part in the qualifying competition.
This left only (Asia-Pacific), (Americas) and (Middle East-Africa) as the only full-member nations for their respective confederations, and therefore will automatically advance to the second round of qualification.
This leaves the European confederation as the only one to stage a confederation tournament to decide their second-round slot allocation.
Following the conclusion of the European confederation qualification tournament, the 2025 World Series will take place.
Qualified teams
European qualifying
The European confederation qualification tournament will take place in October 2024 and is open to all full member nations as of 15 March 2024. The winner of the tournament will advance to the World Series in 2025.
On 14 March 2024,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
and
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
had their membership downgraded to affiliate members due to non-compliance with the membership policy, and as a result are no longer eligible to participate in the World Cup qualification process.
The four eligible nations were confirmed to be participating on 25 July 2024. These are:
* (IRL ranking 8th)
* (IRL ranking 11th)
* (IRL ranking 20th)
* (IRL ranking 17th)
Teams will play semi-finals and a final. The semi-finals are based on
IRL Rank with highest-ranked playing lowest-ranked and second-highest playing second-lowest. The losing semi-finalists will contest a third place playoff; this has no bearing on World Cup qualification, but will count for world ranking points.
Venues
Fixtures
Semi-finals
----
Third place playoff
Final
World Series
The 2025 World Series will be the inter-confederation qualification tournament for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup.
The winner and the runners-up will qualify for the World Cup.
The confirmed participating nations for the tournament are:
*
*
*
* Winner of European confederation qualification tournament.
Notes
References
{{Rlwc
qualification men