There is the matter of the last 6 spots up for grabs, 4 from UEFA and 2 from the Intercontinental playoffs. These will be drawn tomorrow (7 AM eastern) and contested in the March window.
What do we have?
UEFA
There are 16 teams vying for the last 4 UEFA spots.
They will be placed in 4 brackets, with the winners going to the World Cup. Each bracket will be:
In the Semis Pot 1 and 2 teams will host. Tomorrow's draw will also determine the host for the Final of each bracket.
Pretty straight forward.
Intercontinental playoff
There are 6 teams vying for two spots.
This format is a touch more complicated. In this case the top two world ranked teams, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq, automatically advance to the finals. While the remaining 4 teams will be drawn head to head to face the winners. Another key thing: Jamaica and Suriname cannot meet in the semi-finals, so the semis will either be Jamaica-Bolivia / Suriname-New Caledonia or Jamaica-New Caledonia / Bolivia-Suriname.
These will also be neutral site matches. Word broke recently that they will be played in Guadalajara and Monterrey.
The brackets look like this: