2026 FIFA World Cup: Format, key dates and how the 48-team tournament will work

It is often said that people cannot get too much of a good thing and FIFA will test that with their expansion plans of the 2026 World Cup.

The tournament will take place in the USA, Canada and Mexico and will feature more teams and more matches than ever before.

It's not quite the often-suggested plans to make the World Cup every two years, but it is a major expansion which will have ramifications in terms of the tournament's format and scheduling.

So, what exactly can we expect from the expanded 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico? After months of tweaks and twitching, here are what FIFA have decided.

How many teams will compete at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

The 2026 World Cup will be the first edition of the tournament since FIFA approved a major expansion. There were 32 places up for grabs from qualification on Qatar 2022, but a whopping 48 countries will take part in the finals in 2026.

That in itself has caused a great deal of debate. FIFA point out that more nations getting the opportunity to qualify for a World Cup can only be considered a good thing.

Asian and African teams will benefit most from that expansion, with at least seven of the additional spaces going to those Federations. CONCACAF will get at least two more as well, as will the South American nations.

Europe will also benefit as well, although not proportionally. UEFA are by far the most dominant continental football federation and already have 13 representatives at a World Cup. That will be increased to 16 for 2026.

For context, UEFA nations made up 40% of the teams at the 2022 World Cup, but that will drop to 33% for 2026. That has caused some anger with UEFA claiming the expansion is not being done in a proportional way.

Others, of course, point out that 40% of World Cup qualifying positions going to one federation was never proportional in the first place and the new plans make it fairer on the rest.

That argument has merit. There were 55 UEFA teams who attempted to qualify for the 13 positions at the 2022 World Cup. By comparison, 54 African teams battled it out for just five.

How many teams from each region will qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

Given there are three host nations, that leaves 45 qualification spots up for grabs. They will be divided between the federations in the following way:

How many groups will there be at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

The expansion of the tournament from 32 teams to 48 has caused a bit of a headache for FIFA. Mind, they are projecting it will generate an extra $4bn in revenue for them, so we're sure the headaches are bearable.

Initially the plan, controversially, was to divide the 48 teams into 16 groups of three. That was never likely to go down well. So, at the 2026 World Cup, the four-team group format will be kept meaning there will be 12. That is four more than the recent editions of the tournament.

How many matches will be played at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

More teams means more matches. That is just the way maths works.

There will be 104 matches at the 2026 World Cup, which is an increase of 40 on other recent editions. That is a lot of extra football to be played.

That will obviously go down well with the viewer. Live matches televised successively from morning to night is part of what makes the World Cup so special.

In that sense, an extra 24 matches sounds very good, but what will it mean from a practical point of view?

In Qatar, each of the eight groups had six matches so there were 48 in total during that phase of the competition. At the 2026 World Cup, because FIFA are maintaining the four-team format, that number will jump to 72. So, from the viewer's point of view, that is 24 extra games.

The group stage took place over 13 days in Qatar so generally, there were four matches per day in that time. That is set to continue in 2026 after the first two days of the tournament, where only two games are scheduled. There will be six matches per day during the final four days of the group stage, which means the first phase of the competition will last 16 days.

How the 48-team 2026 FIFA World Cup will work

The expansion of the World Cup will mean some changes to the format of the competition, although they are not as sweeping as they could have been or first looked like they would be.

As usual, the top two teams from each of the 12 groups would automatically qualify for the knockout stage. Those 24 teams would be joined by eight best third-placed teams.

The first knockout stage will therefore contain an extra round, meaning nations now have to play eight games instead of seven to win a World Cup.

2026 FIFA World Cup stadiums and locations

41 cities and 43 venues submitted bids to host matches at the 2026 World Cup, with FIFA revealing the 16 host cities in June 2022. These are: Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Monterrey, Mexico City, Toronto, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Miami.

Each venue will host at least four matches, with AT&T Stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys, hosting nine games.

Key dates for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The opening game of the 2026 World Cup is scheduled for 11 June in Mexico City where one of the three hosts, Mexico, will participate. There are two games scheduled for the opening day.

The group stages will run for 16 days from 11 June until 27 June. The 2026 World Cup final will be held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 19 July.

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