A Comprehensive Overview of the Upcoming Tournament Hosted by USA, Canada, and Mexico
Host Cities and Stadiums
The FIFA World Cup 2026 is set to be a unique and exciting event. For the first time in history, the tournament will be hosted by three countries: USA, Canada, and Mexico. The final will be played on July 19, 2026.
A total of 16 cities will host matches. Most of them (11) are located in the USA: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Boston and New York. The Mexican headquarters will be in Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Finally, the Canadian venues are Vancouver and Toronto.
Tournament Format and Qualification
The 2026 World Cup will also see an increase in the number of participating teams. For the first time, 48 teams will take part in the tournament. As host nations, the Word Cup USA, Canada and Mexico will all automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
The tournament format has also been changed. The group stage format has been amended from 16 groups of three to 12 groups of four. The top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams from the groups will now progress to the round of 32.
The qualification process for the FIFA World Cup 2026 USA CANADA MEXICO will decide which teams will join the hosts Canada, Mexico, and the United States at the tournament. The slot allocation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been approved by the FIFA Council and is as follows: UEFA (Europe) will have 16 direct spots, CAF (Africa) will have 9, AFC (Asia) will have 8, CONMEBOL (South America) will have 6, CONCACAF (North and Central America, plus the Caribbean) will have 6, and OFC (Oceania) will have 1.
In addition to these direct slots, there will be an intercontinental play-off tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup spots. One playoff team will come from each of the confederations (except UEFA) and there will be an extra team from the CONCACAF region to make up the six teams.
The start date for World Cup 2026 qualification varies by region. In Europe, qualification will begin in March 2025 and finish in November 2025. In North America, qualification will begin in March 2024 and finish in November 2025. In South America, qualification will begin in September 2023 and finish in September 2025. In Asia, qualification will begin in October 2023 and finish in October 2025.
The number of games played in qualification varies by region and depends on the qualification format used by each confederation. For example, in South America, all 10 teams play each other twice, for a total of 18 games per team. In other regions, the number of games played can vary depending on the number of teams participating and the number of rounds in the qualification process.
Security and Logistics
The FIFA World Cup 2026 will be held across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The three countries have jointly taken charge of organizing the event and have begun preparations on issues of security, communication, logistics, and innovation based on the experiences of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Mexico-U.S.-Canada Security Observation Program was held in Qatar from December 3-7 with the participation of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, through the embassy and Mexico’s World Cup coordinators in Qatar, and National Guard members who acted as Mexico’s national police in Qatar and served as liaisons with Qatari authorities to protect and provide consular assistance to Mexican fans attending the World Cup.
Here is a list of stadiums that will host matches during World Cup 2026 USA CANADA MEXICO along with their respective capacities:
Canada
- Toronto, Ontario: BMO Field (45,500)
- Vancouver, British Columbia: BC Place (54,000)
Mexico
- Guadalajara, Jalisco: Estadio Akron (46,232)
- Mexico City: Estadio Azteca (87,523)
- Monterrey, Nuevo Leon: Estadio BBVA (53,500)
USA
- Atlanta, Georgia: Mercedes-Benz Stadium (71,000)
- Boston, Massachusetts: Gillette Stadium (65,878)
- Dallas, Texas: AT&T Stadium (80,000)
- Houston, Texas: NRG Stadium (72,220)
- Kansas City, Missouri: Arrowhead Stadium (76,416)
- Los Angeles, California: SoFi Stadium (70,240)
- Miami, Florida: Hard Rock Stadium (65,326)
- Nashville, Tennessee: Nissan Stadium (69,143)
- New York/New Jersey: MetLife Stadium (82,500)
- Orlando, Florida: Camping World Stadium (65,000)
- Seattle, Washington: Lumen Field (68,740).