| Coupe du Monde de la FIFA 2026 (French) Copa Mundial de la FIFA 2026 (Spanish) |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Tournament details | |
| Host countries | Canada Mexico United States |
| Dates | June 11 – July 19 |
| Teams | 48 (from 6 confederations) |
| Venues | 16 (in 16 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Spain (2nd title) |
| Runners-up |  Argentina |
| Third place |  England |
| Fourth place |  France |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 104 |
| Goals scored | 308 (2.96 per match) |
| Attendance | 6,810,966 (65,490 per match) |
| Top scorer | Kylian Mbappé (10 goals) |
| Best player | Rodri |
| Best young player | Pau Cubarsí |
| Best goalkeeper | Unai Simón |
| Fair play award |  Netherlands |
|
← 2022
2030 →
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The 2026 FIFA World Cup[A] was the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men’s soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament began on June 11, 2026, and concluded on July 19 with Spain winning the championship for the second time.[3] It was jointly hosted by 16 cities—11 in the United States, 3 in Mexico, and 2 in Canada. The tournament was the first FIFA World Cup to be hosted by three countries and the first to include 48 teams, an expansion from the previous 32-team format.[4]
The 2026 tournament was the second World Cup to be hosted by multiple nations, after the 2002 edition. Mexico became the first country to host the World Cup three times, having hosted the 1970 and 1986 tournaments.[5] The United States previously hosted the World Cup in 1994, while it was Canada’s first time hosting the tournament.[5] The event returned to its traditional June–July schedule after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which was uniquely held in November and December to avoid Qatar’s extreme summer heat.[6] Canada, Mexico, and the United States qualified automatically as hosts, while Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan made their World Cup debuts.[5]
For the first time in the tournament’s history, the top four teams from the FIFA Men’s World Ranking at the time of the contest (Argentina, Spain, France, and England) advanced to the semifinals.[7] Spain won the final against defending champion Argentina 1–0 after extra time, winning its second title and first since 2010. Spain also made history by being the first nation to become the reigning champion for both the men’s and women‘s World Cups,[8] and the first team to win the World Cup while conceding only one goal during the tournament. France captain Kylian Mbappé won his second consecutive Golden Boot for scoring the most goals (10) during the tournament. He became the all-time leading goalscorer at the World Cup and the first player to win multiple World Cup Golden Boots.[9] The average number of goals per match in the tournament was 2.96, the highest since the 1970 edition.[10]
Spain captain Rodri won the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament. Unai Simón won the Golden Glove as the tournament’s best goalkeeper, while Pau Cubarsí won the Young Player Award as the tournament’s best young player. Nearly 7 million people attended matches during the tournament, surpassing the 1994 edition to set a new record for the highest attendance in World Cup history.[11] The 2026 World Cup reportedly generated a record $15 billion in revenue.[12]
Format
Expansion
The idea of expanding the tournament had been suggested as early as 2013 by then-UEFA president Michel Platini,[13][14] as well as in 2016 by current FIFA president Gianni Infantino.[15] 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,[16][17] and that the decision was driven by political rather than sporting concerns, specifically that Infantino was trying to win his election by promising to bring more countries to the World Cup.[18]
Starting with the 2026 edition, the World Cup expanded to 48 teams, an increase of 16 teams compared to the previous seven tournaments.[19] As approved by the FIFA Council on March 14, 2023, the teams were split into 12 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams in each group and the 8 best third-place teams progressing to a new round of 32.[20] It was the first expansion and format change since 1998.[21]
The total number of matches played increased from 64 to 104, and the number of matches played by teams reaching the semifinals increased from 7 to 8. The tournament lasted 39 days, an increase from the 32 days of the 2014 and 2018 tournaments, and from the 29 days of the 2022 tournament,[22][23] although each team still played three group matches.[24][25] The final matchday at club level for players named in the final squads was May 24, 2026; clubs had to release their players by May 25, with exceptions granted to players participating in continental club competition finals up until May 30. The combined rest, release, and tournament periods remained 56 days, the same as in the 2010, 2014, and 2018 World Cups.[20]
Other expansion formats explored
After the expansion to 48 teams was approved on January 10, 2017, it was initially decided that the tournament would include 16 groups of 3 teams, with the top two teams of each group progressing to a round of 32.[19][26] This format would have included 80 matches in total, with the maximum number of matches per team remaining at seven, although each team would have played one fewer group match than in the 2022 tournament. The tournament would still have been completed within 32 days.[27] This format was chosen over three alternatives involving 40 to 48 teams, 76 to 88 matches, and a minimum of 1 to 4 matches per team.[B]
Critics of this format argued that the use of three-team groups with two teams progressing significantly increased the risk of collusion between teams.[31] This prompted FIFA to suggest that penalty shootouts could be used to prevent draws in the group stage,[32] although even then some risk of collusion would remain, as it was possible for the two teams playing the last group match to engineer a circle of death result that would allow both of them to qualify.[31] The tournament format was finalized in 2023, with an announcement that there would be 12 groups of 4 teams.[33][34]
New rules
The 2026 FIFA World Cup introduced several rule changes, primarily designed to reduce time-wasting.[35] The new rules included:
- 10-second substitutions: Players being substituted had ten seconds to exit the field; otherwise, the substitute had to wait for one minute before entering the match.
- 5-second restarts: A visual 5-second countdown was shown by the referee for throw-ins and goal kicks in situations of time-wasting. If the ball was not put into play in time, a restart was awarded to the opposing team; a corner kick was awarded if the infraction occurred with a goal kick.
- Medical treatment: Any outfield player who received medical attention on the field had to leave the field and wait for 1 minute before returning to play.
- Expanded video assistant referee (VAR): The VAR could review and overturn wrongly awarded corner kicks, certain attacking fouls, and clear mistakes on red cards given from a second yellow card.
- Mouth-covering red cards: To stop confrontational or insulting behavior which was concealed to avoid lip-reading, any player who covered his mouth with his hand, arm, or shirt while confronting an opponent was sent off.
- Player leaving the field in protest: Players or officials who left the field in protest were sent off.[35]
Another change was the tiebreaker formula used when two or more teams finish the group stage with an equal number of points. The first tiebreaker criteria was the number of points earned in head-to-head matches between the tied teams, not the goal difference among all matches.[C]
Mandatory breaks
Cooling or hydration breaks were introduced at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. For the 2026 World Cup, FIFA introduced mandatory three-minute hydration breaks in every half for all matches. Broadcasters were permitted to run commercials during these pauses.[39] Since the clock did not stop during the breaks, the three minutes were automatically included in the stoppage time for each half.[40]
Match schedule
The match schedule, without group assignments, was announced on February 4, 2024.[D] On June 13, FIFA released an updated schedule, with specific pairings assigned to venues for the knockout stage.[43] The full schedule was unveiled in a live broadcast on December 6, 2025, the day after the draw.[44] The opening match of the tournament included Mexico, and took place on June 11, 2026, at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.[45] Canada’s first match occurred on June 12 at BMO Field in Toronto, while the United States’ opening match took place on the same day at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. The national team of each host nation played its three group stage matches in its own country.[41]
AT&T Stadium in Arlington hosted the most matches of any venue, with nine. The U.S. hosted 78 matches, including all quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final, which was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on July 19. Canada and Mexico each hosted 13 matches. Each tournament venue, except for the Estadio Akron, hosted at least one knockout stage match.[46] The match schedule overlapped with the 2026 Canadian Football League season, resulting in scheduling conflicts and loss of home games for the Toronto Argonauts and BC Lions.[47][48] The match schedule also affected the 2026 Major League Baseball season schedules of the Kansas City Royals, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers, with home stadiums near World Cup venues.[49]
Host cities were geographically grouped into three regions:[3]
- Western Region (Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles)
- Central Region (Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City)
- Eastern Region (Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, New York/New Jersey)
However, even during the group stage, about half of the teams had to play matches in two different regions.[3]
| Stage | Matchday | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Group | 1 | June 11–17 |
| 2 | June 18–23 | |
| 3 | June 24–27 | |
| Knockout | Round of 32 | June 28 – July 3 |
| Round of 16 | July 4–7 | |
| Quarterfinals | July 9–11 | |
| Semifinals | July 14–15 | |
| Match for third place | July 18 | |
| Final | July 19 |
| Matchday | Pairings | Groups | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 vs 2 3 vs 4 |
A | June 11 |
| B & D | June 12 | ||
| B, C & D | June 13 | ||
| E & F | June 14 | ||
| G & H | June 15 | ||
| I & J | June 16 | ||
| K & L | June 17 | ||
| 2 | 1 vs 3 4 vs 2 |
A & B | June 18 |
| C & D | June 19 | ||
| E & F | June 20 | ||
| G & H | June 21 | ||
| I & J | June 22 | ||
| K & L | June 23 | ||
| 3 | 4 vs 1 2 vs 3 |
A, B & C | June 24 |
| D, E & F | June 25 | ||
| G, H & I | June 26 | ||
| J, K & L | June 27 |
Host selection
The United 2026 bid beat a rival bid by Morocco during a final vote at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow in 2018. The previous year, FIFA president Gianni Infantino had stated that Europe (UEFA confederation) and Asia (AFC) would be excluded from the bidding following the selection of Russia for the 2018 World Cup and Qatar for the 2022 tournament.[50] Therefore, the 2026 World Cup could be hosted by one of the remaining four confederations: CONCACAF (North America; last hosted in 1994), CAF (Africa; last hosted in 2010), CONMEBOL (South America; last hosted in 2014), or OFC (Oceania, never hosted), or potentially by AFC or UEFA in case no bid from the others met FIFA’s requirements.[51]
Co-hosting of the World Cup—which had been suspended by FIFA after the 2002 edition—was approved for the enlarged 2026 tournament.[52] Canada, Mexico, and the United States had each considered bidding for the tournament separately; the United joint bid was announced on April 10, 2017.[53][54] The Moroccan bid was announced that August.[55]
Voting
Voting for the host was open to 203 FIFA member associations.[56] The United bid won with 134 votes, while the Morocco bid received 65 votes.[54][57] Iran voted for neither of the two bids, while Cuba, Slovenia, and Spain abstained from voting. Ghana had been suspended by FIFA for corruption and was therefore ineligible to vote.[E] Morocco was later selected as a co-host of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, alongside Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
| Nation | Vote | Map | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1 |  |
|||||||||||
| Canada, Mexico, United States | 134 | |||||||||||
| Morocco | 65 | |||||||||||
| None of the bids | 1 | |||||||||||
| Abstentions | 3 |
|
||||||||||
| Total valid votes | 200 | |||||||||||
| Required for majority | 101 |
Venues
621miles
During the bidding process, 41 cities with 42 existing, fully functional venues with regular tenants (except Olympic Stadium in Montreal) and two venues then under construction (Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles) submitted to be part of the bid: three venues in three cities in Mexico, six venues in six cities in Canada, and 35 venues in 32 cities in the United States.[63] A first-round elimination removed nine venues and nine cities. A second-round elimination cut an additional nine venues in six cities, while three venues in three cities (Soldier Field in Chicago, U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and BC Place in Vancouver) dropped out because FIFA was unwilling to negotiate financial details.[64] After Montreal dropped out in July 2021 because it lacked provincial funding and support to renovate Olympic Stadium,[65] Vancouver rejoined the bid as a candidate city in April 2022,[66] bringing the total number to 24 venues, each in its own city or metropolitan area.[67]
On June 16, 2022, the sixteen host cities–two in Canada, three in Mexico, and eleven in the United States–were announced by FIFA: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Monterrey, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver.[68] Eight of the sixteen chosen stadiums had permanent artificial turf surfaces that were replaced with grass under the direction of FIFA and a University of Tennessee–Michigan State University research team. Depending on the venue’s climate, the turf used was either a hybrid of 84% Kentucky bluegrass and 16% perennial ryegrass (for cooler temperatures), or Bermuda grass (for warmer temperatures).[69][70][71]
Four venues (Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Vancouver) were indoor stadiums that used retractable roof systems, all equipped with climate control, while a fifth, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, was open-air but had a translucent roof and no climate control.[72] The host of the final match—MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey—was announced by FIFA on February 4, 2024.[73]
Although there were soccer-specific stadiums in Canada and the United States, the largest soccer-specific stadium in the U.S., Geodis Park in Nashville, Tennessee, seated 30,000, fell short of FIFA’s minimum requirement of 40,000 seats (Toronto’s BMO Field was expanded from 30,000 to 45,500 for this tournament).[74] Stadiums including Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts; and Lumen Field in Seattle have been used by both National Football League (NFL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) teams.[75] Although the Canadian and American stadiums were primarily used for gridiron football, they were also designed to accommodate soccer matches.[76]
Mexico City was the only capital of the three host nations chosen as a venue site; Ottawa and Washington, D.C., joined Bonn (West Germany, 1974) and Tokyo (Japan, 2002) as the only capital cities not selected to host World Cup matches. Washington was a host city candidate, but the poor state of Northwest Stadium caused the city to combine its bid with nearby Baltimore‘s M&T Bank Stadium, which was unsuccessful. Other cities eliminated from the final hosting list were Cincinnati, Denver, Nashville, Orlando, and Edmonton. Ottawa’s candidate venue, TD Place Stadium, was eliminated early on for insufficient capacity.[77] Eight of the metropolitan areas involved had previously hosted World Cup matches (Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, New York/New Jersey, and Boston in 1994; Guadalajara and Mexico City in both 1970 and 1986; Monterrey in 1986), but none of the stadiums used in the 1994 FIFA World Cup were used in this tournament (though Gillette Stadium and MetLife Stadium were located at the same sites as two of the 1994 venues, Foxboro Stadium and Giants Stadium respectively).[78] Soldier Field in Chicago, the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (Los Angeles area) were the only stadiums in the bidding process to have hosted matches in 1994, but none of them were selected.[63] Estadio Azteca in Mexico City was the only stadium in this tournament that had previously been used for a World Cup, in both 1970 and 1986; it thus became the only stadium to be used for three World Cups.
FIFA’s rules on stadium sponsorships required venues to use alternative names for the duration of the tournament, shown in parentheses below.[F][79][80] The capacity is based on information published by FIFA.[80]
- Key
- † denotes a stadium used for previous men’s World Cup tournaments.
- ‡ denotes an indoor stadium with a fixed or retractable roof with interior climate control.
| City[G] | Stadium | Number of matches | Capacity | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mexico City |
Estadio Azteca† (Mexico City Stadium)[F] |
5 (3 group, 2 knockout) | 80,824 |  |
 New York/New Jersey(East Rutherford, New Jersey) |
MetLife Stadium (New York New Jersey Stadium) |
8 (5 group, 2 knockout, and the final) | 80,663 |  |
| Dallas (Arlington, Texas) |
AT&T Stadium‡ (Dallas Stadium) |
9 (5 group, 4 knockout) | 70,649 |  |
| Los Angeles (Inglewood, California) |
SoFi Stadium‡ (Los Angeles Stadium) |
8 (5 group, 3 knockout) | 70,492 | .jpg) |
| Kansas City |
Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City Stadium)[F] |
6 (4 group, 2 knockout) | 69,045 |  |
| San Francisco Bay Area (Santa Clara, California) |
Levi’s Stadium (San Francisco Bay Area Stadium) |
6 (5 group, 1 knockout) | 68,827 |  |
| Houston |
NRG Stadium‡ (Houston Stadium) |
7 (5 group, 2 knockout) | 68,777 |  |
| Philadelphia |
Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia Stadium) |
6 (5 group, 1 knockout) | 68,324 | .jpg) |
| Atlanta |
Mercedes-Benz Stadium‡ (Atlanta Stadium) |
8 (5 group, 3 knockout) | 68,239 |  |
| Seattle |
Lumen Field (Seattle Stadium) |
6 (4 group, 2 knockout) | 66,925 |  |
| Miami (Miami Gardens, Florida) |
Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Stadium) |
7 (4 group, 2 knockout, and third-place) | 64,478 |  |
| Boston (Foxborough, Massachusetts) |
Gillette Stadium (Boston Stadium) |
7 (5 group, 2 knockout) | 64,146 |  |
 Vancouver |
BC Place‡ (BC Place Vancouver) |
7 (5 group, 2 knockout) | 52,497 |  |
| Monterrey (Guadalupe, Nuevo León) |
Estadio BBVA (Estadio Monterrey) |
4 (3 group, 1 knockout) | 51,243 |  |
| Guadalajara (Zapopan, Jalisco) |
Estadio Akron (Estadio Guadalajara) |
4 (4 group) | 45,664 | .jpg) |
| Toronto |
BMO Field (Toronto Stadium) |
6 (5 group, 1 knockout) | 43,036 |  |
Teams
Qualification
On August 31, 2022, FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that six CONCACAF teams would qualify for the World Cup, with Canada, Mexico, and the United States automatically qualifying as hosts.[81][82] This was confirmed by the FIFA Council on February 14, 2023.[83][84]
Immediately prior to the 67th FIFA Congress, the FIFA Council approved the slot allocation during a meeting in Manama, Bahrain.[85][86] This included an inter-confederation playoff tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup spots.[87] The six teams in the playoffs comprised one team from each confederation excluding UEFA, and one additional team from the confederation of the host countries (CONCACAF). Two of those teams were seeded based on the World Rankings, and they played the winners of two knockout matches between the four unseeded teams for the two FIFA World Cup berths. The four-match tournament was played in Mexico, one of the host countries, and was also used as a test event for the FIFA World Cup.[85]
The ratification of slot allocation also gave the OFC a guaranteed berth in the final tournament for the first time: the 2026 FIFA World Cup was the first tournament in which all six confederations had at least one guaranteed berth and also the first time since the 2010 edition in which all confederations had a team qualify for the World Cup finals.[85]
Of the 48 qualified teams, 26 also appeared in the 2022 edition. Highlights include:
- Cape Verde,[88] Curaçao,[89] Jordan, and Uzbekistan[H][90] made their World Cup debuts.
- Qatar qualified for the tournament through qualification for the first time, as its only previous appearance was as host in 2022.[91]
- DR Congo[I] and Haiti returned to the tournament after appearing in their only previous tournament in 1974.[89][92]
- Iraq returned to the tournament after appearing in its only previous tournament in 1986.[93]
- Austria, Norway,[94] and Scotland returned to the tournament after last appearing in 1998.[95]
Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify after losing the European playoff final to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties, becoming the first former champion to miss three consecutive World Cups;[96] as in 2018 and 2022, Italy was the only former champion that did not qualify. With a FIFA Men’s World Ranking of 12.