FIFA reveals 2026 World Cup host cities in US, Canada and Mexico
The International Football Federation (FIFA) announced on Friday the 16 host cities that will stage matches for the 2026 World Cup, scheduled to take place across three Northern American countries.
2026 World Cup
The 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
“We congratulate the 16 FIFA World Cup Host Cities on their outstanding commitment and passion,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the press release.
“Today is a historic day – for everyone in those cities and states, for FIFA, for Canada, the USA, and Mexico who will put on the greatest show on Earth.
“We look forward to working together with them to deliver what will be an unprecedented FIFA World Cup and a game-changer as we strive to make football truly global,” added FIFA President in the same press release.
The 2026 World Cup will be also the first edition that will feature 48 teams and three host countries, according to the same source.
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the sport’s global governing body.
The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War.
The current champion is France, which won its second title at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
The current format involves a qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase.
In the tournament phase, 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over about a month.
As of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, twenty-one final tournaments have been held and a total of 79 national teams have competed. The trophy has been won by eight national teams.
Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Germany and Italy, with four titles each; Argentina, France, and inaugural winner Uruguay, with two titles each; and England and Spain, with one title each.
