World Cup 2026 will play 104 matches

According to The Athletic, the decision will be approved at a meeting of the FIFA Council later on March 14 in the Rwandan capital Kigali, where officials were present to prepare for the annual general meeting on Wednesday. Year.

Held in Canada, Mexico and the US, the 2026 World Cup is the largest tournament with 48 teams, the longest, in 39 days.

According to the original plan, the tournament will divide 16 groups with three teams, of which the top two teams will advance. This version will have 80 matches, an increase of 16 matches compared to the 64 match format that FIFA applied since 1998. But according to The Athletic, this format has the disadvantage that it no longer has the attractiveness of the last round taking place at the same time, when the group was only three compared to four teams like in previous World Cups. At the 2022 World Cup, Hwang Hee-chan scored in the first minute of injury time, helping Korea beat Portugal 2-1 to enter the round of 16. In the match in the same group that ended a few minutes earlier, Uruguay won against Ghana 2-0, but was still eliminated because of the sub-index.

In addition, the fact that the group has three teams increases the possibility that the two teams that face off in the last leg "collude" with each other to create an outcome in their favor. This happened at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, when West Germany beat Austria 1-0 in the final leg to progress, and caused Algeria to be eliminated.

Although FIFA has not announced the opening date, the total number of days to host the 2026 World Cup will be 56, including 16 days before kick-off and 39 days of competition, similar to the World Cups in 2010, 2014 and 2018. According to Sky Sports The final of the 2026 World Cup is scheduled to take place in the United States on July 19, 2026.

This change in format entails a reorganization of the organization of matches between the host countries. Previously, according to the original format, the US hosted 60 matches, while Canada and Mexico each hosted 10 matches.

According to Sky Sports, the increase in the number of matches helps FIFA pursue its goal of achieving revenue of 11 billion USD (more than 9 billion pounds), and at the same time solve the problems of competition format for the tournament co-hosted by the three countries.

At the beginning of 2017, FIFA approved the decision to increase the participation in the 2026 World Cup from 32 to 48 teams. This decision helps all member associations of FIFA benefit from having more places to attend the World Cup. Specifically, Europe still has the most spots, increasing from 13 to 16 teams. Africa increased four slots to nine, North, Central America and the Caribbean and South America together had six. Oceania will have an official slot instead of the current play-off, while Asia has four more to make eight official slots.

The 2026 World Cup is also the first world football final to be hosted by three countries. Before that, in 2002, Japan and Korea were the first two countries to host the biggest tournament on the planet. Mexico, thus, became the first country to host the World Cup three times, after 1970 and 1986. The United States hosted the World Cup for the second time after 1994, and the 2026 World Cup is the first time Canada has this honor.