Sportsmail’s guide to 2026 tournament in US, Canada and Mexico

Much less than 3 months just after the drama and controversy of the 2022 Globe Cup in Qatar, fans and players are seeking forward to the 2026 edition. It is set to be a massive a single – in extra techniques than a single. 

FIFA has announced a huge expansion and revamp to the well-known worldwide tournament, with 48 teams (up from 32) – the 3 host nations and 45 qualifiers – playing 104 matches (up from 64), considerable increases of about 50 per cent. 

That development implies a longer tournament and extra and earlier/later matches each and every day in the US, Canada and Mexico, exactly where the 2026 competitors will be held.

It will be a pretty various Globe Cup to the final edition in the Americas in 1994, with wholesale adjustments to the group stages and qualification course of action.

Who will qualify? What will it appear like? How will it function? Beneath, Sportsmail outlines all the alterations, the brand new format, and anything you require to know about the subsequent tournament in an exhaustive guide.

Much less than 3 months just after the Qatar Globe Cup, interest is turning to the 2026 edition The 2026 Globe Cup is set to be larger than Qatar 2022, which saw Lionel Messi lift the trophy  

The most significant expansion in Globe Cup history 

This is an utterly unprecedented expansion, with specifically 50 per cent extra teams incorporated. 

The initial 4 tournaments in 1930, 1934, 1938 and 1950 had involving 13 and 16 nations competing, increasing to 16 from 1954, 24 for Spain 1982 and 32 for France 1998, exactly where it has remained considering that. Till now.

There has only been a single preceding tournament with nations jointly hosting – Japan and South Korea in 2002 – but provided the quantity of teams now involved and the resulting stadia and infrastructure required to assistance them, it appears extra most likely there will be several neighbouring nations hosting the tournament from now on.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, elected on a pledge to produce a 40-group Globe Cup, insisted the £825million added earnings and £530m added profit this move is anticipated to produce will trickle down to grassroots football, rather than lining the pockets of the fat cats at the pretty top rated. 

Hmm. Readers can make up their personal minds on how most likely that is. Infantino mentioned: ‘Increasing the size of teams which can participate will improve the investment in football improvement, to make certain that the teams can qualify.’

Diego Maradona won the Globe Cup in MexicoWhile Roberto Baggio missed a penalty in the final in the USA 

A lot more games and a longer tournament 

We’ll get to the intricacies of the group stage format later but fundamentally, there will be 12 groups of 4 teams. That necessitates a huge quantity of added games (104), rather than the 80 there would have been with 16 groups of 3. 

The European Club Association did not assistance the move since of fears of the impact a drastically larger and longer tournament would have on squeezing domestic fixtures for clubs.

CONCACAF president and 2026 Globe Cup chairman Victor Montagliani mentioned: ‘The tournament will be six or seven days longer, but the actual footprint involving release and final will be the identical footprint as 2014 and 2018.’

FIFA are claiming the tournament’s ‘footprint’ – how extended it forces domestic calendars to ‘pause’ to match the tournament in – will be 56 days, the identical as the 2010, 2014 and 2018 editions. 

But the 2026 tournament is set to continue for 39 days, a week extra than in 2010, 2014 and 2018 and ten days extra than in Qatar. In 2018, nations had 25 days involving the finish of the domestic season to prepare for the start off of the tournament. 

For 2026, it really is just 16 days. Not significantly turnaround time for exhausted players at the finish of a extended season. Player welfare and muscle injuries could be a hot potato in 3 years’ time.

Canada fans assistance their sideAmerican little ones will be cheering on the USMNT in 3 years’ time The 2026 tournament will have an unprecedented expansion from 32 teams to a whopping 48  

Group stage format 

It is in fact been extra than six years considering that a FIFA vote rubber-stamped the move which would see the 48 teams divided into 16 groups of 3. In this situation, the top rated two teams in every group would progress to the round of 32.

Nevertheless, this was controversial since it raised the prospect of two teams ‘settling’ on a certain outcome that would send them each via at the expense of the other group in the final group game.

West Germany and Austria infamously passed the ball about aimlessly in a 1- win which saw them each progress and Algeria knocked out. Following this, FIFA introduced final group games played at the identical time. 

Even this addition, and the FIFA suggestion that equivalent collusion could be avoided by deciding group-stage draws with penalty shoot-outs, would not avoid the possibility of – for instance – a 1- outcome enabling each teams to progress.

This, along with the higher drama of the 4-group groups in Qatar, saw FIFA modify their thoughts and adapt to 12 groups of 4, with eight third-placed teams in groups moving into the knockouts. That has occurred at the most current two European Championships. It does imply, even though, there is a lack of jeopardy for teams.

There may perhaps also be a ‘two-halves’ split, with the teams who qualify for the knockouts split into two sections, raising the prospect of teams getting capable to steer clear of a group in the other ‘half’ till the final. Equally, there may perhaps be just a single knockout bracket.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has introduced a new format, with 12 groups of 4 nations This avoids the prospect of two teams ‘settling’ on a certain outcome to send them each via, for instance when West Germany and Austria infamously passed the ball about aimlessly in a 1- win which saw them each progress and Algeria knocked out back in 1982  

Instance group stage

Group A: Argentina, Switzerland, Sweden, Iraq.

Group B: Belgium, Peru, Costa Rica, Ghana.

Group C: Canada, Iran, Chile, North Macedonia.

Group D: Holland, Morocco, South Korea, Jamaica.

Group E: Mexico, Serbia, Egypt, Qatar.

Group F: Denmark, Uruguay, Cameroon, United Arab Emirates.

Group G: England, Croatia, Nigeria, Ecuador.

Group H: United States, Colombia, Poland, DR Congo.

Group I: Portugal, Senegal, Australia, Panama.

Group J: Brazil, Japan, Ukraine, Mali.

Group K: Spain, Wales, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia.

Group L: France, Germany, Algeria, New Zealand.

Instance group stage

If the 2026 set-up for the 48-group group stage was replicated in 2022, we would have observed the following teams added – with Mali and North Macedonia producing their Globe Cup bows.

In this hypothetical situation, locations had been awarded to the subsequent very best-ranked teams in every confederation. 

Italy did not make the play-off final, losing against North Macedonia, so do not qualify in this instance.

From Africa, Algeria, DR Congo, Egypt, Mali and Nigeria would join Cameroon, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana and Tunisia – with New Zealand the only representative added from Oceania.

Iraq and UAE would qualify alongside Australia, Iran, Japan, hosts Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Korea from Asia, though from the Americas, Jamaica and Panama would make the reduce with Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico and the USA. 

Bear in thoughts, 3 of CONCACAF’s six qualifying spots are taken up by the 3 hosts for 2026.

From South America, Chile, Colombia and Peru would be added to Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay, with North Macedonia, Sweden and Ukraine joining the European ranks.

Chile and DR Congo, the two highest-ranked sides in the planet eligible for the inter-continental play-offs would get the final two locations (El Salvador, Honduras, Solomon Islands and Syria would have been the other 4 in the play-offs). 

For the inter-continental play-offs, the six teams will originate with a single from every confederation other than Europe, with an added a single from the host confederation CONCACAF. 

If we use the common method of placing the hosts in Pot 1 with the other top rated-ranked teams, we can produce the instance from ESPN (above, correct) of what a 48-group group stage could appear like – just for illustrative purposes.

Albiceleste Lionel Scaloni (correct) will be seeking to retain his country’s title in summer time 2026 Although England boss Gareth Southgate (centre) will be aiming to finish the 60 years of hurt  

Added qualification spots – and who gets them 

A total of 46 teams will qualify automatically, with two extra getting into by way of inter-continental play-offs. Beneath, we outline how the confederations have announced qualifying will function in their zones.

CONCACAF will see 3 nations going to the tournament. The initial round will happen in March 2024, with 12 teams in the inter-continental play-offs from September to November 2025 deciding these 3 automatic qualifiers.

In UEFA, 12 groups of 4 or 5 will start in March 2025. The winners of every group will qualify, though the play-off predicament is as but unconfirmed. 

In Asia, minor nations need to start off qualifying from October, with the third round (September 2024-June 2025) revealing the automatic qualifiers.

In the South American CONMEBOL, they will keep the easy ten-group league, with the top rated six producing the tournament. Qualifying will start in September. Although in Africa and Oceania, the format is nevertheless undecided.

Later kick-off times 

The 1994 Globe Cup in America saw kick-off occasions frequently cater for European viewers, with the most recent games beginning at four.30pm Pacific Time (half previous midnight in the UK).

Provided FIFA will not play two matches at as soon as till the final group games, they will likely be stretched all through days to accommodate the added fixtures. 

Montagliani has admitted it ‘could possibly’ imply six matches a day, with games beginning at 1pm Eastern Time (6pm UK time) and continuing each and every two hours till 10pm Pacific Time (6am UK time). 

How is it various from the final Globe Cup in the USA? 

Properly, there are extra teams and extra matches, compared to the 1994 edition, with double the 24 teams from back then and double the 52 fixtures as well. 

In contrast to in 1994, exactly where most venues had been on the east coast of America and utilized Eastern Time (Chicago and Dallas utilized Central Time, west-coast Stanford and Pasadena utilized Pacific Time), there will be 16 venues in Canada, Mexico and the US, spanning all 3 time zones extra equally.

What ever takes place, the 2026 tournament promises to be a record-breaker.