That passed quickly, didn’t it!
After a summer of anticipation, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has come and gone, with a champion (Argentina) being decided on Sunday after a month of action that drew much of the world’s attention.
Now the same attention from football fans around the world is turning to our part of the world.
Because this World Cup will be held in November and December instead of summer, there will be a shorter than usual turnaround time when the 2026 World Cup returns to its usual summer timeframe and is hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
While there is still a lot to work out logistically for the event, here’s what we do know about the 2026 World Cup.
The host cities have been determined
During the summer, FIFA, the world governing body of football, announced each country’s host city for the World Cup. Here they are broken down by country.
Canada – Toronto, Vancouver
Mexico – Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey
United States – Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle.
It has not yet been announced which cities will host the quarterfinals, semifinals and league game, although one can bet the finals venue will be New York/New Jersey.
Locations were chosen largely based on stadium capacity, so cities with larger football stadiums willing to host were prioritized rather than football-only stadiums.
Tickets will not be sold for a while
For the recent World Cup in Qatar, tickets only went on sale in January, about 10 months before the event began. Expect a similar timeframe for 2026.
A lot more teams will compete
The field will expand from 32 teams to 48 teams in 2026 and looking ahead, expect multiple nations to join forces to host the World Cup in years to come, with more stadiums being needed. The USA, Canada and Mexico automatically qualified as hosts, so the qualifying phase will decide the other 45 teams over the next few years.
The format is in the air
This has already been a much discussed topic. Developing a format for 32 teams was relatively easy. Simply split the field into eight groups of four, with the top two teams advancing to the Round of 16/knockout rounds. Finding a way to accommodate 48 teams will be very difficult and it will be the most important thing FIFA has to do in the coming months.
There was talk of dividing the field into 16 groups of three teams, with the top two teams advancing and the knockout stage having 32 teams instead of 16.
So what are other options?
FIFA was able to split the field into 12 groups of four, with the top two in each group and the top eight third-place finishers progressing.
Another option could be to split the field in two halves with 24 teams divided into six groups of four teams within those halves. The winners of each of these halves would eventually play in the championship game.
There could also be scenarios where group winners get byes for certain rounds.
The expectations of the host countries will be higher
The United States reached the round of 16 in Qatar, while Canada and Mexico did not progress through the group stage. The same results will not suffice for all three nations in 2026.
Surviving the group stage was the realistic goal for USA, who had the second youngest roster at the World Cup and the youngest roster in the country’s history at the event. But many of those core players who play in Europe, like Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Christian Pulisic, Tim Weah, Sergino Dest, Josh Sargent and Brendan Aaronson, will be in their prime in 2026.
This is where the US needs to break through and show they can do more than compete with the traditional world powers, but beat them and progress to later stages of the event. We’re by no means suggesting it’s the World Cup or the rout, but it’s time to do more than just be happy to advance to the last 16.
Canada is in a similar situation as they also have a young core who will be in their prime in 2026 like Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David and Tajon Buchanan.
The Canadians were thrilled to be in Qatar, having qualified for only the second time at a World Cup, and managed to score their first goals in the competition.
It wasn’t heartbreaking not making it through the group stage, but like USA, it’s time for more. Anything short of reaching the knockout rounds on home soil in 2026 will be a huge disappointment for Canada.
Mexico failed to progress beyond the group stage at a World Cup for the first time since 1978, prompting a change of coach.
The Mexicans have an older core than the Americans and Canadians, but there should still be enough emerging young talent in the pipeline to avoid Qatar’s poor results and expect a long run in 2026.
