RELATED
As there remains less than 4 years for the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, EuroFutbol brings you an outline of the format and cities to host this competition. It should be noted that the competition will be hosted in North America by three countries of United States, Canada and Mexico. The 2026 World Cup will take place from June to July unlike this year where the traditional format had changed to November and December.
By hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Mexico will be the first country to host this men's competition three times. Accordingly, BBC says FIFA is projecting as many as 5.5 million fans will attend the next tournament, beating the record 3.6m supporters who attended games in 1994, when there was an average attendance of 68,000 at each game.This would see FIFA earn over $11 billions from the competition.
On January 10, 2017, the FIFA Council chose the last of the four options and voted unanimously to expand to a 48-team tournament. The tournament will open with a group stage consisting of 16 groups of three teams, with the top two teams progressing from each group to a knockout tournament starting with a round of 32 teams. Under this format, the total number of games played will increase from 64 to 80, but the number of games played by finalists remains at seven, the same as with 32 teams. Each team will play one fewer group match than under the previous format, compensating for the additional knockout round. The tournament will also be completed within 32 days, the same as previous 32-team tournaments
Here are the details of the new format of the 2026 World Cup:
- 48 teams (from 6 confiderations, 16 European)
- 16 host cities
- 12 groups of 4
- Top 2 qualify + 8 best third-placed teams
- Last 32 knock-out round
-104 TOTAL GAMES
On 16th June, FIFA outlined which cities were to host the tournament in 2026.
FIFA World Cup.
Atlanta(USA)
Boston(USA)
Dallas(USA)
Guadalajara(Mexico)
Houston(USA)
Kansas City(USA)
Los Angeles(USA)
Mexico City(Mexico)
Miami(USA)
Monterrey(Mexico)
New York / New Jersey(USA)
Philadelphia(USA)
San Francisco Bay Area(USA)
Seattle(USA)
Toronto(Canada)
Vancouver(Canada)
