On video: World Cup championship celebrations in Argentina (Photo: Reuters)
About three months after the end of the 2022 World Cup, FIFA approved today (Tuesday) the revolutionary plan for the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada.
The number of participating women will increase from 32 to 48 teams and instead of 64 games, as we have been used to since 1998, this time there will be 104 games over 39 days.
The tournament will start on June 11 and will end with the final match to be held in the USA on July 19, 2026.
In Qatar, in the first ever World Cup held in the middle of the soccer season and causing the leagues to stop for a period of about a month and a half, the density between the games was great and the 64 games were completed in 29 days.
Will be in the next World Cup?
Lionel Messi and the trophy (Photo: Reuters)
In the original planning of the 2026 World Cup, 80 matches appeared, but today the FIFA professional committee approved the expansion and thus effectively disallowed a format of houses with three teams that caused much controversy. Thus, it is guaranteed that each team will play three matches in any case. The 48 teams will be divided into
12 Houses and as usual there will be two qualifiers from each house, with the eight best teams from third place also moving on to the last 32 - the stage that will be added in this edition before the round of 16. Thus, the teams that reach the
finals (or for third place) actually have to play eight games instead of seven as which has been so far.
sport
world football
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World Cup 2026
