Following the admission of Gibraltar and Kosovo as members of FIFA, both nations have been added to the UEFA qualifiers for the 2018 Men’s World Cup. Gibraltar will take part in Group H, and Kosovo in Group I.

Groups H and I previously had only five teams. UEFA ruled that Kosovo should not be in the same group as either Serbia or Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since Bosnia-Herzegovina are in Group H, this forced Kosovo into Group I, where they will face Croatia, Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, and Finland. Gibraltar will take on Belgium, Bosnia-Herz, Greece, Estonia, and Cyprus in Group H.

The Gibraltar Football Association and the Football Federation of Kosovo were both admitted to FIFA at its congress in México, DF, Mexico on FRI 13 MAY 2016. Both faced a long battle toward membership; Gibraltar first applied for FIFA membership in 1997, Kosovo in 2008.

Gibraltar, a small overseas territory of the United Kingdom, has been claimed by Spain for over 300 years. Accordingly, Spain led opposition against Gibraltar’s applications for membership to UEFA and FIFA. Following several decisions by the Court for Arbitration of Sport, Gibraltar’s membership was finally accepted by UEFA in 2013.

Kosovo applied to UEFA and FIFA for membership shortly after declaring independence in 2008. Opposition has been led by Serbia; it and a number of other nations do not recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state, though relations between Kosovo and Serbia were normalised by the Brussels Agreement of 2013. UEFA accepted Kosovo’s application on TUE 03 MAY 2016.

The decision brings to 270 the total number of matches in the UEFA group phase. UEFA have not yet announced the schedule of matches for Gibraltar and Kosovo, nor have they confirmed whether matches against sixth placed teams will still be excluded when determining which second placed teams advance to the playoffs.