The general idea of expanding the tournament had been suggested as early as 2013 by then-UEFA president Michel Platini,^[5][6] and also in 2016 by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.^[7] Opponents of the proposal argued that the number of games played was already at an unacceptable level,^[8] that the expansion would dilute the quality of the games,^[9][10] 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.^[11]

Starting with this edition, the FIFA World Cup expanded to 48 teams, an increase of 16 from the previous 7 tournaments.^[12] The teams will be split into 12 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 of each group and the 8 best third-placed teams progressing to a new round of 32, as approved by the FIFA Council on March 14, 2023.^[13] This is set to be the first expansion and format change since 1998.

The total number of games played will increase from 64 to 104, and the number of games 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.^[14][15] Each team will still play three group matches.^[16][17] 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 remains identical to the 2010, 2014 and 2018 tournaments.^[13]

The expansion to 48 teams had already been approved on January 10, 2017, when it was 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and 80 matches in total, with the top two teams of each group progressing to a round of 32.^[12][18] Under this later-superseded format, the maximum number of games per team would have remained at seven, but each team would have played one fewer group match than before. The tournament still would have been completed within 32 days.^[19] The later-superseded format was chosen over three other proposals, ranging from 40 to 48 teams, from 76 to 88 matches, and from one to four minimum matches per team.^[20][21][22]

Critics of the later-superseded format argued that the use of three-team groups with two teams progressing significantly increased the risk of collusion between teams.^[23] This prompted FIFA to suggest that penalty shoot-outs may be used to prevent draws in the group stage,^[24] although even then some risk of collusion would remain, and a possibility would emerge of teams deliberately losing shootouts to eliminate a rival.^[23] To address these concerns, FIFA continued considering alternative formats^[25] – a process that ended with the 2023 announcement that the format would be 12 groups of 4 teams.

The FIFA Council went back and forth between 2013 and 2017 on limitations within hosting rotation based on the continental confederations. Originally, it was set that bids to be host would not be allowed from countries belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments. It was temporarily changed to only prohibit countries belonging to the confederation that hosted the previous World Cup from bidding to host the following tournament,^[26] before the rule was changed back to its prior state of two World Cups.

The FIFA Council made an exception to potentially grant eligibility to member associations of the confederation of the second-to-last host of the FIFA World Cup in the event that none of the received bids fulfill the strict technical and financial requirements.^[27][28] In March 2017, FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that "Europe (UEFA) and Asia (AFC) are excluded from the bidding following the selection of Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 respectively."^[29] 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 before), or potentially by UEFA in case no bid from those four met the requirements.

Co-hosting the FIFA World Cup—which had been banned by FIFA after the 2002 World Cup—was approved for the 2026 World Cup, though not limited to a specific number but instead evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Also for 2026, the FIFA general secretariat, after consultation with the Competitions Committee, had the power to exclude bidders who did not meet the minimum technical requirements to host the competition.^[27] In March 2022, Liga MX president Mikel Arriola claimed Mexico's involvement as cohost could have been at risk if the league and the federation had not responded quickly to the Querétaro–Atlas riot between rival fans that left 26 spectators injured and resulted in 14 arrests. Arriola said FIFA was "shocked" by the incident but Infantino was satisfied with the sanctions handed down against Querétaro.^[30]

Canada, Mexico, and the United States had all publicly considered bidding for the tournament separately, but the United joint bid was announced on April 10, 2017.^[31][32]

The voting took place on June 13, 2018, during the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow, and it was opened to all 203 eligible members.^[33] The United bid won with 134 valid ballots, while the Morocco bid received 65 valid ballots. Iran voted for the option "None of the bids", while Cuba, Slovenia, and Spain abstained from voting. Ghana was suspended by FIFA due to a corruption scandal and was therefore ineligible to vote.^{[34][35][36][37][38]}

During the bidding process, 41 cities with 43 existing, fully functional venues with regular tenants (except Montreal) and 2 venues under construction submitted to be part of the bid (3 venues in 3 cities in Mexico; 9 venues in 7 cities in Canada; 38 venues in 34 cities in the United States). A first-round elimination cut nine venues and nine cities. A second-round elimination cut an additional nine venues in six cities, while three venues in three cities (Chicago, Minneapolis, and Vancouver) dropped out due to FIFA's unwillingness to discuss financial details.^[39] After Montreal dropped out in July 2021 due to lack of provincial funding and support to renovate the Olympic Stadium,^[40] Vancouver rejoined the bid as a candidate city in April 2022,^[41] bringing the total number to 24 venues, each in its own city or metropolitan area.

On June 16, 2022, the sixteen host cities (2 in Canada, 3 in Mexico, 11 in the United States) were announced by FIFA: Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Monterrey, Mexico City, Toronto, Boston, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Miami.^[42] Eight of the sixteen chosen stadiums have permanent artificial turf surfaces that are planned to be replaced with grass under the direction of FIFA and a University of Tennessee–Michigan State University research team. Four venues (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Vancouver) are indoor stadiums that use retractable roof systems, all equipped with climate control while a fifth, Los Angeles, is open-air but has a translucent roof and no climate control.^[43] The host of the final match—MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey—was announced by FIFA on February 4, 2024.^[44]

Although there are soccer-specific stadiums in Canada and the United States, the largest dedicated soccer-specific stadium in the U.S., Geodis Park in Nashville, Tennessee, seats 30,000, which falls short of FIFA's minimum of 40,000 (Toronto's BMO Field is being expanded from 30,000 to 45,500 for this tournament).^[45] Stadiums including Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Lumen Field in Seattle are used by National Football League (NFL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) teams.^[46] Although primarily used for gridiron football, with the American stadiums hosting NFL teams and Canada's hosting the Canadian Football League (CFL), all of the Canadian and American stadiums have been used on numerous occasions for soccer and are also designed to host that sport.^[47]

Mexico City is the only capital of the three host nations chosen as a venue site, with Ottawa and Washington, D.C., joining 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 due to the poor state of FedExField, combined its bid with nearby Baltimore's, which was also 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 due to insufficient capacity.^{[citation needed]} None of the stadiums used in the 1994 FIFA World Cup will be used in this tournament, and the Azteca is the only stadium in this tournament that was used in the 1970 and 1986 FIFA World Cups.^[48]

Due to FIFA's rules on stadium sponsorships, most of the venues will use alternative names for the duration of the tournament,^[49] given here in parentheses.

A † denotes a stadium used for previous men's World Cup tournaments.

A ‡ denotes an indoor stadium with a fixed or retractable roof with interior climate control.

Base camps will be used by the 48 national squads to stay and train before and during the World Cup tournament. In June 2024, FIFA announced the hotels and training sites for each participating team; additional potential sites were later announced in November.^[51][52] Fourteen more bases were added in April 2025.^[53]

The United Bid personnel anticipated that all three host countries would be awarded automatic berths.^[54] On August 31, 2022, FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that six CONCACAF teams will qualify for the World Cup, with Canada, Mexico, and the United States automatically qualifying as hosts.^[55][56] This was confirmed by the FIFA Council on February 14, 2023.^[57][58]

Immediately prior to the 67th FIFA Congress, the FIFA Council approved the slot allocation in a meeting in Manama, Bahrain.^[59][60] This includes an intercontinental playoff tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup spots.^[61]

The six teams in the playoffs will comprise one team from each confederation excluding UEFA, and one additional team from the confederation of the host countries (CONCACAF). Two of the teams will be seeded based on the World Rankings, and they will play the winners of two knockout games between the four unseeded teams for the two FIFA World Cup berths. The four-game tournament is to be played in one or more of the host countries, and will also be used as a test event for the FIFA World Cup.^[59] The ratification of slot allocation also gives the OFC a guaranteed berth in the final tournament for the first time: the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the first tournament in which all six confederations have at least one guaranteed berth. This will also be the first time since the 2010 edition in which all continents have a team qualified for the World Cup finals.^[59]

Eritrea withdrew from qualification prior to playing any matches, reportedly due to concerns that players would seek political asylum if allowed to travel overseas.^[62][63][64] Congo, drawn in the same group as Eritrea, was suspended on February 6, 2025, due to government interference in FECOFOOT operations.^[65][66] While no announcement regarding its status in the tournament has been released, CAF has cancelled its remaining matches.^[67]

The teams that have qualified to date, sorted by region:

The draw will take place in December 2025. While a draw venue has not been confirmed, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and other cities have bid to host.^[68] The four winners of the UEFA play-offs and the two winners of the inter-confederation play-off tournament will not be known at the time of the draw, as these matches are scheduled to occur during March 2026.

For the draw, 48 teams will be allocated into four pots based on the FIFA Men's World Ranking of November/December 2025. Pot 1 will contain co-hosts Mexico, Canada and the United States (who were automatically assigned to positions A1, B1, and D1, respectively), and the best nine teams. Pot 2 will have the next best twelve teams, followed by the next twelve teams in Pot 3. Pot 4 will consist of the six lowest-ranked teams, along with the placeholders for the two inter-confederation play-off winners and four UEFA play-off winners.

The match schedule, including the venue for the final, was revealed on February 4, 2024, 3:00 p.m. EST, from the Telemundo Center in Miami.^[69][70] However, only the venues and dates were confirmed for the matches, with no information regarding group assignments.^[1] Venue assignments for specific group stage pairings, as well as kick-off times, will be confirmed following the final draw, allowing for more matches to be scheduled at favorable times for global audiences.^[71][72] The geographical regions were updated with Atlanta and Miami moved to the eastern region. The opening match was announced to include Mexico, taking place on June 11, 2026, at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The opening match involving Canada will take place on June 12 at BMO Field in Toronto, while the opening game for the United States will take place on the same day at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Each host nation was scheduled to play its three matches in the group stage within its own country. AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will host the most matches of any venue at the tournament with nine. MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will host the final on July 19. The United States will host 78 matches, including the quarterfinals onward, while Canada and Mexico will each host 13. Each tournament venue, except for the Estadio Akron, will host at least one knockout stage fixture.^[73]

Host cities were geographically grouped to optimize travel for teams and fans, except Canada and its opening-game opponent in Toronto. Cities were split into three regions: the Western Region (Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles), the Central Region (Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City), and the Eastern Region (Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, New York/New Jersey). 4 out of 12 groups were allocated for the Central region with 24 matches, three groups in the Western region, and the rest in the Eastern region with a shared-region group with Canada.

On June 13, 2024, FIFA released an updated match schedule, with specific pairings assigned to venues for knockout stage matches. In addition, group stage matches were assigned to specific groups (though match pairings for non-host groups will not be assigned to specific fixtures until after the final draw).^[74]

Prior to the final draw, stadiums were assigned to specific groups.^[75] Following the final draw, pairings will be allocated to specific matches, and the kick-off times will be confirmed.^[72]

The official emblem and brand identity was unveiled on May 17, 2023, at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California; its basic form consists of a stacked "26" with an image of the FIFA World Cup Trophy in front of it (marking the first time that the trophy has been depicted in a World Cup emblem as a photo, as opposed to a stylized representation), but it is designed to be adaptable to different backdrops.^[76][77] The next day, FIFA unveiled variants of the emblem for each of the host cities, which feature color variants and designs that reflect local landscapes or culture (with the Los Angeles emblem featuring a stylized sun and wave, the Monterrey emblem featuring imagery of the Cerro de la Silla mountain, and Toronto featuring the city skyline and the CN Tower).^[78][79]

Reaction to the logo from the initial unveiling was largely negative, with many feeling that the design was either unfinished or uncreative compared to the emblems of past FIFA World Cup tournaments. By contrast, United States national team player Jesús Ferreira described the emblem as "beautiful".^[80][77][81]

On February 12, 2015, FIFA renewed the U.S. and Canadian broadcasting rights contracts for Fox (U.S. English), NBCUniversal (U.S. Spanish), and Bell Media (Canada) to cover 2026, without accepting any other bids. A report in The New York Times asserted that this extension was intended as compensation for the rescheduling of the 2022 World Cup to November–December rather than its traditional June–July scheduling, as it created considerable conflicts with major professional sports leagues that are normally in their offseasons during the World Cup.^[82][83][84]

The International Broadcast Center (IBC) will be located at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.^[85][86][87]

FIFA will stage fan festivals in cities across the host nations, featuring matches on giant screens and live entertainment.^[108] Among the confirmed fan fest locations are Liberty State Park in Jersey City,^[108] Fairmount Park in Philadelphia,^[109] Fort York and The Bentway, Toronto, and East Downtown, Houston.^[110][111]

On May 2, 2025, reports surfaced that the match ball would be "Adidas Trionda". The design featured red, green, and blue (the three colors representing Canada, Mexico, and the United States), as well as a wave connecting each of the colors, hence the name meaning "three wave" in Spanish.^[112]

On May 17, 2023, the official theme song of the tournament was released, an instrumental track simply titled "FIFA World Cup 26 Theme Song".^[113] In March 2025, sixteen remixes of theme were released which featured artists from each host city giving their own local spin to the song.^[114] The remixers for each city were:

• Atlanta – Dallas Austin
• Boston – Ben Zakharenko, Dayvin, Berklee College of Music
• Dallas – Tre Nagella
• Guadalajara – Bautista
• Houston – Bombón
• Kansas City – Tech N9ne
• Los Angeles – DJ Flict
• Mexico City – Mexican Institute of Sound
• Miami – Mr. NaisGai
• Monterrey – Toy Selectah
• New York/New Jersey – Take a Daytrip
• Philadelphia – DJ Jazzy Jeff
• San Francisco Bay Area – Dan the Automator
• Seattle – Sango
• Toronto – Hill Kourkoutis
• Vancouver – Grayson Repp

In January 2025, Queen's University Belfast warned about potential heat risks for most of the host cities and urged FIFA to schedule match kickoffs later into the afternoon or evening, stating that the Wet-bulb globe temperature was higher than Qatar in the winter.^[115] Concerns have also been raised by climate activists about the environmental impact of both the expansion to 48 teams as well as traveling between host cities, most of which will require extensive air travel and increase carbon emissions, a counter to one of FIFA's goals on sustainability.^[116]

In March 2025, the trade union Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI) accused FIFA of blocking a planned labor inspection at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca, which is undergoing renovations in preparation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. According to BWI, FIFA's intervention prevented inspectors from evaluating working conditions at the site, raising concerns about potential labor rights violations similar to alleged instances of slave labor at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.^[117]

During the bidding process, President Donald Trump's executive orders regarding immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries implemented during his first term were touted as a potential risk. Infantino stated, "Any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup."^[118] In response, the Trump administration sent letters to FIFA that read, in part, that Trump was "confident" that "all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination."^[119]

Concerns around the staging of the tournament were also raised due to the immigration policy of the second Donald Trump administration. In response, Vice President JD Vance said, "Of course, everybody is welcome to come and see this incredible event, but when the time is up, they’ll have to go home. Otherwise, they’ll have to talk to Secretary Noem."^[120]

On May 9, 2025, air traffic controllers who guide planes in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport lost radar and communication with aircraft before dawn. The Trump administration unveiled a plan to overhaul the aging technology that keeps U.S. airspace space safe, to avoid and eliminate any potential aviation disasters during the tournament.^[121][122]