FIFA World Cup 2026

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the current and 23rd edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament is currently taking place from June 11 to July 19, 2026. It is jointly hosted by sixteen cities—eleven in the United States, three in Mexico, and two in Canada. The tournament is the first FIFA World Cup to be hosted by three nations, and the first to include 48 teams, an expansion from the previous 32.

The United 2026 bid beat a rival bid by Morocco during a final vote at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow. It will be the first World Cup since 2002 to be co-hosted by multiple nations. With its past hosting of the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, Mexico will become the first country to host or co-host the World Cup three times. The United States previously hosted the World Cup in 1994. By contrast, it will be Canada's first time hosting or co-hosting the tournament. The event is returning to its traditional Northern Hemisphere summer schedule after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was uniquely held in November and December.

As the host nations, Canada, Mexico, and the United States all automatically qualified. Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan will all make their World Cup debuts. Argentina is the defending champion, having won its third World Cup title in 2022.

Preparations for the tournament have drawn controversy, particularly over the United States's immigration and visa policies affecting qualified teams and their fans, Iran's participation amid an ongoing war with the US and Israel, and FIFA's use of dynamic ticket pricing.

Format

Expansion

The idea of expanding the tournament had been suggested as early as 2013 by then UEFA president Michel Platini, and also in 2016 by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.[4] Opponents of the proposal argued that the number of matches played was already at an unacceptable level, that the expansion would dilute the quality of the matches, and that the decision was driven by political rather than sporting concerns, accusing Infantino of using the promise of bringing more countries to the World Cup to win his election.

Starting with this edition, the FIFA World Cup expanded to 48 teams, an increase of 16 teams compared to the previous seven tournaments. The teams will be split into twelve groups of four teams, with the top two teams in each group and the eight best third-placed teams progressing to a new round of 32, as approved by the FIFA Council on March 14, 2023. This is set to be the first expansion and format change since 1998.

The total number of matches played will increase from 64 to 104, and the number of matches played by teams reaching the final four will increase from seven to eight. The tournament will last 39 days, an increase from 32 days of the 2014 and 2018 tournaments. Each team will still play three group matches. The final matchday at club level for players named in the final squads is May 24, 2026; clubs have to release their players by May 25, with exceptions granted to players participating in continental club competition finals up until May 30. The 56 days of the combined rest, release, and tournament periods remain identical to the 2010, 2014 and 2018 tournaments.

Other expansion formats explored

The expansion to 48 teams had already been approved on January 10, 2017, when it was initially decided that the tournament would include 16 groups of 3 teams, and 80 matches in total, with the top two teams of each group progressing to a round of 32. Under this later-superseded format, the maximum number of matches per team would have remained at seven, but each team would have played one fewer group match than before. The tournament would still have been completed within 32 days. This format was initially chosen over three other proposals, ranging from 40 to 48 teams, from 76 to 88 matches, and from one to four minimum matches per team. Under this expanded format, the tournament will feature 12 groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group, along with the eight best third-placed teams, will advance to a newly introduced Round of 32 single-elimination knockout stage.

Critics of this format argued that the use of three-team groups with two teams progressing significantly increased the risk of collusion between teams. This prompted FIFA to suggest that penalty shootouts may be used to prevent draws in the group stage, although even then some risk of collusion would remain, and a possibility would emerge of teams deliberately losing shootouts to eliminate a rival. To address these concerns, FIFA continued considering alternative formats – a process that ended with the 2023 announcement that the format would be 12 groups of 4 teams.