Overview
The FIFA World Cup is football's flagship international tournament, contested every four years between the national teams of FIFA's 211 member federations. The 2026 edition is the 23rd World Cup and the first to feature 48 teams, the first to be co-hosted by three countries, and the largest edition ever staged — with 104 matches across 16 host cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
This season
World Cup 2026 kicks off on 11 June 2026 in Mexico City and concludes with the Final on 19 July 2026 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Argentina enter as defending champions after their penalty-shootout win over France in 2022. The expanded 48-team format was designed to broaden global participation, particularly for Africa, Asia and CONCACAF, and produces a new 12-group first phase followed by a 32-team knockout round.
Competition format
48 teams are drawn into 12 groups of four. Each team plays three group-stage matches. The top two from every group plus the eight best third-placed teams advance to a 32-team knockout phase, followed by a Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place play-off and Final. Knockout matches go to extra time and, if required, penalty shoot-outs.
Qualification, promotion & relegation
The World Cup has no promotion or relegation. Qualification is decided within each of the six confederations — AFC (8 places), CAF (9), CONCACAF (6 plus 3 host slots), CONMEBOL (6), OFC (1) and UEFA (16) — with two additional spots decided through an intercontinental play-off tournament held in the host countries before the group stage.
Key clubs
- **Argentina** — Defending champions and CONMEBOL benchmark under Lionel Scaloni.
- **France** — 2022 runners-up and one of the tournament's deepest talent pools.
- **Brazil** — Record five-time winners chasing a first title since 2002.
- **Spain** — 2024 European champions and 2010 world champions, now in a new golden generation.
- **Germany** — Four-time winners rebuilding after successive tournament exits.
History
The FIFA World Cup was first held in Uruguay in 1930 and has been contested every four years since, apart from 1942 and 1946 during the Second World War. Brazil are the most successful nation with five titles (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002), followed by Germany and Italy on four each. The 2026 edition marks the first co-hosted World Cup by three federations and the first time the United States has hosted since 1994, Mexico's third time as host, and Canada's first.
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Host cities and venues
Sixteen cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico will host matches: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Monterrey, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver. The final is scheduled for MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 19 July 2026.
Mexico City's Estadio Azteca will become the first venue to host matches at three separate World Cups (1970, 1986, 2026). Every U.S. host stadium has a capacity above 60,000 and most seat over 70,000 — the tournament is designed to be the highest-attended in history.
How teams qualify
The 48-team field allocates slots by confederation: UEFA 16, CAF 9, AFC 8, CONMEBOL 6, CONCACAF 6 (including the three co-hosts), OFC 1, plus two inter-confederation play-off winners. Every confederation has already begun qualifying — CONMEBOL play a full home-and-away round-robin, CAF group qualifying feeds a knockout round, and AFC uses a three-round path culminating in an inter-confederation play-off.
Canada, Mexico and the United States qualify automatically as co-hosts, freeing three CONCACAF slots for other teams from the region.
How to watch worldwide
Fox and Telemundo hold the U.S. rights. TSN, CTV and Noovo share Canadian rights, with Televisa and TV Azteca on the Mexican side. BBC and ITV split the U.K. free-to-air rights. In the rest of Europe, national broadcasters have exclusive rights under FIFA's public-service allocation rules.
Our [48-team World Cup 2026 format explainer](/news/world-cup-2026-format-explained) covers exactly how the extra 16 places change match density, rest days and tactical planning.
Frequently asked questions
- How many teams are in the 2026 World Cup?
- 48 — up from 32 at Qatar 2022. This is the first World Cup with the expanded format.
- How does the 48-team World Cup format work?
- 12 groups of four teams. Top two from each group plus the eight best third-placed sides advance to a 32-team knockout stage.
- When does the 2026 World Cup start?
- The opening match is on 11 June 2026 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The Final is on 19 July 2026 at MetLife Stadium.
- How many host cities does the 2026 World Cup have?
- 16 — 11 in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada.
- How many teams play at World Cup 2026?
- Forty-eight — a 50% increase from the 32-team format used from 1998 to 2022. This is the first World Cup at the expanded size.
- Where is the World Cup 2026 final?
- MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey (New York/New Jersey host city), on Sunday 19 July 2026.