NEW CALEDONIA are given a lifeline following their 3-0 defeat to New Zealand in the Oceanian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
The small group of French islands, which sit in the southwest Pacific Ocean, will enter the inter confederation play-offs.
Due to FIFA increasing the number of participants for the World Cup from 32 to 48 , this has given the OFC direct entry to the tournament for the very first time as well as an entry to the play-offs.
New Caledonia will join one team each from AFC (Asia) , CAF (Africa), and CONMEBOL (South America) and two from CONCACAF (North and Central America) in the inter-confederation play-offs.
The teams will be seeded into brackets based on the FIFA World rankings.
Each bracket will feature two unseeded teams facing each other in a semi-final, with the winner advancing to the play-off final against a seeded team.
The winner of both brackets will advance to the World Cup finals.
However, these games will not be played until three months prior to the tournament starting and will take place in one of the host countries.
The country, who are ranked 152nd in the World and have a similar population to Southampton, will have it all to do if they are to reach the World Cup but this a massive step in the right direction for New Caledonian football.
