What's new in 2026
This is the first World Cup co-hosted by three countries — Canada, Mexico and the United States — and the first played under the expanded 48-team format approved by FIFA in 2017. It replaces the 32-team event used from 1998 to 2022, increasing the field by half and adding twenty extra matches to the schedule. For the first time, every confederation has at least one guaranteed direct qualification spot, and the host trio holds three of the 48 slots. Mexico will become the first country to host or co-host three men's World Cups, having staged the tournament outright in 1970 and 1986. Estadio Azteca, which witnessed the 1970 final between Brazil and Italy and Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" quarter-final in 1986, opens the entire tournament on 11 June.
The new format, explained
The 48 teams are split into 12 groups of four. Each team plays three group games, and the top two from each group advance automatically. They are joined by the eight best third-placed finishers across all twelve groups, producing a 32-team Round of 32 — a knockout round that has never existed at a World Cup before. From there the bracket collapses into the familiar Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place play-off and Final. The total number of matches per finalist rises from seven to a possible eight, and the tournament window stretches to 39 days, the longest in World Cup history.
FIFA originally floated a 16-group, three-team format but reversed course after the chaos-free, drama-rich group stage of Qatar 2022 made the four-team group too valuable to sacrifice. The trade-off is an extra knockout round; the upside is that no group game is ever a dead rubber where two teams know exactly what result advances them.
Key dates
- 11 June 2026 — Opening match: Mexico v Morocco, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City
- 11–27 June — Group stage (72 matches across all 16 host cities)
- 28 June – 3 July — Round of 32 (16 matches, the new round)
- 4–7 July — Round of 16
- 9–11 July — Quarter-finals
- 14–15 July — Semi-finals
- 18 July — Third-place play-off, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami
- 19 July — Final, MetLife Stadium, New York/New Jersey
Where each round is played
The United States stages 78 of the 104 matches, including every knockout fixture from the quarter-finals onward. Canada and Mexico each host 13 group-stage matches and a small handful of Round of 32 and Round of 16 ties. The three opening matches of the tournament are split deliberately by country: Mexico City hosts the absolute opener, Toronto's BMO Field hosts Canada's first match the day after, and the United States open at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The Final, semi-finals and one quarter-final are all confirmed for stadiums in the U.S. — a logistical choice driven by venue capacity rather than sporting symbolism.
See the full host city breakdown for stadium details, climate notes and how altitude and humidity will shape the tournament.
Who's qualified
The 48-team field is the most representative World Cup ever assembled. Europe (UEFA) sends 16 teams, Africa (CAF) nine, Asia (AFC) eight plus an inter-confederation play-off slot, South America (CONMEBOL) six, North/Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) six including the three hosts, and Oceania (OFC) one direct slot for the first time in the OFC's history. A 48-team draw means tournament debutants — Cape Verde, Uzbekistan, Jordan and others — share a group stage with traditional powers like Brazil, Germany and Argentina. Browse the full list on the teams page.
How to follow every match on this site
top soccer pulls live scores, status flags (LIVE, HT, FT) and the running minute from a licensed data feed every 30 seconds. The live scores page shows every match in progress and the most recent results. The wallchart renders all 12 group tables — calculated client-side from real results, including the standard FIFA tiebreakers (points → goal difference → goals scored → head-to-head → fair-play points) — alongside the full knockout bracket. The What-If calculator on the homepage lets you pick a hypothetical scoreline for the remaining group games and watch the standings recompute instantly, so you can answer questions like "what does France need to do to top Group E?" without doing the maths yourself.
Tickets and travel basics
Tickets are sold exclusively through FIFA.com via a multi-phase application window. The first random-selection sale closed in late 2025; resale, last-minute and conditional supporter tickets continue through the tournament. Prices range from approximately US$60 for category-four group-stage seats to upwards of US$6,000 for the Final. Travelling fans should note that group winners are not confirmed until 27 June, which makes booking knockout-round travel before that date a calculated gamble — the closest stadium to one quarter-final could be a five-hour flight from the next. Visa policies differ by country, and the FIFA "Fan ID" pilot from previous tournaments is not in use; each host nation applies its own standard immigration rules.
Frequently asked questions
We answer the most common questions — from "why are there now 48 teams?" to "what happens if two teams finish level on every tiebreaker?" — on the dedicated FAQ page.