MY ACCOUNT
The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico is set to feature 104 games.
FIFA’s proposed format will include a new round-of-32 stage, with plans for three-team groups poised to be abandoned.
The finals will be the first to feature 48 teams and the revised structure is set to be approved at a meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.
Qualifiers are reportedly set to be split into 12 groups of four rather than 16 groups of three as was initially proposed.
Group winners and runners-up, along with the eight best third-placed teams, would then advance to the last-32 stage.
It is expected that the new format will not mean the tournament has a bigger overall ‘footprint’ than in 2014 and 2018 when preparation time is included.
But the competition itself is set to get longer, going up to 38 or 39 days for 2026 compared to 32 in 2018 and 2014.
The preparation period for 2026 between a player’s release and their country’s first match will reportedly be around two weeks — double what was in place for Qatar last year but shorter than the previous two summer tournaments.
Qatar’s thrilling group stage has persuaded FIFA to stick with four-team pools for the 2026 finals, while there had also been integrity concerns raised over three-team groups because sides would be unable to complete the group at the same time, raising the possibility of results being engineered.
