European qualification format

The 2014 FIFA World Cup European qualification cycle will mirror its 2010 version exactly. The 53 teams in UEFA will be split into six pots of nine teams each according to the July 2011 FIFA rankings. UEFA will send thirteen delegates to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brasil.

The teams will be drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. FIFA will make sure that Russia and Georgia will not be paired together within the same group due to ongoing political unrest. The same method will be apply to prevent Azerbaijan and Armenia from falling into the same group.

All teams in a group will play each other home and away. The winner of each group will advance to Brasil 2014. In addition, the eight best second-place finishers will advance to a final home-and-away playoff series to determine UEFA's final four participants at Brasil 2014. The worst second-place finisher will be eliminated along with the 35 teams that finished outside the top two places in their respective groups.

In determining the rankings of the second-place teams, results against sixth-place finishers in Groups A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H will not factor into the final tally. This is done out of fairness to the second-place finisher in Group I who will have played two less matches than its counterparts. The eight teams that earned the most points in their eight matches that factor into the rankings will advance to the playoff series. The four highest ranking teams in the FIFA rankings in late 2013 will be drawn against the other four teams in home-and-away playoff series with the four winners advancing to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brasil.