GENEVA (AP) — European soccer now focuses on qualifying for the 2026 World Cup with recent champions France, Germany and Spain among the nations starting a six-game, 11-week sprint to advance to the tournament being played across North America.
The European qualifying program returns Thursday with six days of games involving 54 teams — 24 of them kicking a first ball on their intended road to play on soccer’s biggest stage in the United States, Canada and Mexico starting June 11.
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Manchester City’s Erling Haaland warms up prior to the English Premier League soccer match between Brighton and Hove Albion and Manchester City at the Falmer stadium in Brighton, England, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
England men’s soccer team head coach Thomas Tuchel, attends the news conference in London, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025 ahead of England’s soccer World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
FILE – Newcastle’s Alexander Isak celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal during the EFL Cup final soccer match between Liverpool and Newcastle at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell, File)
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe gestures during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Mallorca in Madrid, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Italy began its campaign — shakily — in June and resumes its quest to avoid a third straight failure to qualify already trailing nine points behind group leader Norway.
England opened in March and looks to add to three straight wins with no goals conceded for coach Thomas Tuchel.
Among those starting their qualifying program are top-tier teams who played a thrilling set of Nations League games in March and June.
Spain, the 2010 World Cup winner, begins at Bulgaria on Thursday when 2014 champion Germany starts at Slovakia.
France, the 2018 title winner, starts Friday away against Ukraine in Les Bleus’ first game in the competition since losing an epic final against Argentina in December 2022.
Ukraine will host that game in Wroclaw in neutral Poland because of security concerns at home during the Russian military invasion. Russia’s teams were banned by UEFA and FIFA from all international competitions in February 2022 when the war began.
Europe has 16 entries in the first 48-team men’s World Cup, three more than in the 32-team format played in 2022.
The 12 first-place teams when qualifying groups end in November advance direct to the tournament.
The 12 runners-up go to the playoffs scheduled in March, joined by four winners of Nations League groups played last year. Those extra teams could include, remarkably, San Marino, 210th and last of the men’s national teams ranked by FIFA.
The 16 European playoffs teams will be seeded into four knockout brackets of four teams each. They play single-game semifinals and finals on March 26 and 31, to decide the four remaining World Cup slots.
The extra World Cup entries given by FIFA, and Nations League knockout stage expanded by UEFA, have changed the qualifying formula.
Europe now has its first World Cup qualifying groups of just four teams since those that finished in November 1989, just days after the Berlin Wall fell and reshaped the continent.
High-ranking nations that once had to play in groups of five or six teams across 15 months now have a condensed program playing two games in each of three straight months. An injury could remove a key player for the entire qualifying program. Germany will not have Jamal Musiala, who sustained a serious leg injury playing for Bayern Munich at the Club World Cup in July.
The format changes again next year. After the 2026 World Cup, the FIFA schedule for men’s national-team games will combine the separate September and October breaks into a four-game block over back-to-back weekends.
European champion Spain’s reward for beating the Netherlands in a Nations League quarterfinal in March was to land in a four-team group with Turkey and Georgia, two breakout successes at Euro 2024.
Georgia, with star winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, was the most dangerous team among third-seeded options in the draw last December. Georgia hosts Turkey on Thursday and plays at Spain on Oct. 11.
Maybe the hardest to predict is the four-team group of Switzerland, Sweden, Slovenia and Kosovo.
Switzerland was an impressive quarterfinalist at Euro 2024 yet must face some of Europe’s most expensive forwards — Slovenia’s Benjamin Šeško, now at Arsenal, and a Sweden attacking line of Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyökeres and Anthony Elanga who were collectively signed for more than $300 million this season by, respectively, Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle.
A talented Kosovo squad that actively recruits from its migrant population in Switzerland comes to Basel on Friday with the Swiss team captained by its all-time great Granit Xhaka, who has family ties to Kosovo.
One group sure to make news is currently led by Norway ahead of Israel and Italy.
Norway has not qualified for a men’s World Cup since before 25-year-old Erling Haaland was born. The team is on track after the star forward scored in each of four straight wins since starting in March.
Norway has no fixture Friday in the five-team group and hosts last-place Moldova next Tuesday.
Italy, infamously, has not played a World Cup tournament game since June 2014. Then, Giorgio Chiellini was bitten by Uruguay’s Luis Suárez in a 1-0 loss that sent the four-time champion home from the group stage in Brazil.
Italy hosts Estonia on Friday, three days before going to face Israel in neutral Hungary, at Debrecen.
Israeli teams have not been allowed to host home games in international competitions for security reasons since the October 2023 attack by Hamas.
Norway hosts Israel on Oct. 11 in Oslo and pledged last month to donate its profits from ticket sales at that game to humanitarian aid work in Gaza.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland warms up prior to the English Premier League soccer match between Brighton and Hove Albion and Manchester City at the Falmer stadium in Brighton, England, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
England men’s soccer team head coach Thomas Tuchel, attends the news conference in London, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025 ahead of England’s soccer World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
FILE – Newcastle’s Alexander Isak celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal during the EFL Cup final soccer match between Liverpool and Newcastle at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell, File)
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe gestures during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Mallorca in Madrid, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
NEW YORK (AP) — Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the world’s biggest food companies on the planet.
One of the companies will include shelf stable meals and include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese, Kraft Heinz said Tuesday. The other will include brands such as Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. The names of the two companies will be released later.
Kraft Heinz said in May that it was conducting a strategic review of the company, signaling a potential split.
“Kraft Heinz’s brands are iconic and beloved, but the complexity of our current structure makes it challenging to allocate capital effectively, prioritize initiatives and drive scale in our most promising areas,” Executive Chair Miguel Patricio said in a statement.
The path to the merger of Kraft and Heinz began in 2013, when billionaire investor Warren Buffett teamed up with Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital to buy H.J. Heinz Co. At the time, the $23 billion deal was the most expensive ever in the food industry.
3G was also behind the formation of Restaurant Brands International — a merger of Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes — and Anheuser-Busch InBev. It’s known for strict cost controls and so-called zero-based budgeting, which requires all expenses to be justified each quarter.
The deal was intended to help Heinz, which was founded in 1869 in Pittsburgh, expand sales of its condiments and sauces on grocery store shelves. Heinz’s new owners also set about cutting costs, laying off hundreds of workers within months.
At the same time Kraft, based in Chicago, sought for a partner after a 2011 split from its snack division, which became Mondelez International.
In 2015, Buffett and 3G decided to merge Heinz with Kraft. The merger created the 5th largest food and beverage company in the world, with annual revenue of $28 billion. Buffett and 3G each contributed $5 billion for a special dividend for Kraft shareholders.
But the combined company struggled, despite layoffs of thousands of employees and other cost-cutting measures. Even at the time of the merger, many consumers were shifting away from the kinds of highly processed packaged foods that Kraft sells, like Velveeta cheese and Kool-Aid.
Kraft Heinz also had trouble distinguishing its products from cheaper store brands. At Walmart, a 14-ounce bottle of Heinz ketchup costs $2.98; the same size bottle of Walmart’s Great Value brand is 98 cents.
In 2019, Kraft Heinz slashed the value of its Oscar Meyer and Kraft brands by $15.4 billion, citing operational costs and supply chain problems. But many investors blamed the company’s leadership, saying its zeal for cost-cutting was hurting brand innovation.
In 2021, Kraft Heinz sold both its Planters nut business and its natural cheese business, vowing to reinvest the money into higher-growth brands like P3 protein snacks and Lunchables.
But the company’s net revenue has fallen every year since 2020, when it saw a pandemic-related bump in sales. In April, Kraft Heinz lowered its full-year sales and earnings guidance, citing weaker customer spending in the U.S. and the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Kraft Heinz has no plans to change its current headquarter locations in Chicago and Pittsburgh. It currently expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2026.
Shares of the company rose slightly before the market open.
FILE – At left, in a March 25, 2015, file photo, a Heinz ketchup sign is shown on the side of the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. At right, also in a March 25, 2015, file photo, the Kraft logo appears outside of their headquarters in Northfield, Ill. (AP Photo/File)