The subsequent World Cup shall be collectively hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico and can happen from June 11 to July 19, 2026.
It will likely be the primary event to incorporate 48 groups, expanded from the earlier variety of 32, which means there shall be extra video games than ever — 104 in complete.
The event is a great distance off, so particulars on tickets are skinny on the bottom, however that is what we all know thus far.
The place are the matches?
The World Cup will happen throughout 16 cities in three international locations, greater than any event earlier than.
Three of those areas are in Mexico: Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mexico Metropolis.
Two others are on both coast of Canada: Vancouver and Toronto.
The remaining 11 are within the USA: Miami, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Kansas Metropolis, Dallas and New York Metropolis.
That U.S. listing offers the closest massive metropolis to every stadium. Some venues are positioned in lesser-known settlements close by, equivalent to East Rutherford in New Jersey for New York and Santa Clara for San Francisco.
Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Mexico (Sergio Navarrete/Getty Photographs)
How does the event work?
Since 1998, World Cups have had 32 groups, enabling a neat symmetry, however this one is greater and 48 groups means a considerably extra advanced format is critical.
The event used to have eight teams of 4 groups by which every nation performed one another as soon as. The highest two in every group then progress to 4 knockout phases — a spherical of 16, then quarter-finals, semi-finals and the ultimate.
The USA, Canada and Mexico all qualify routinely. The remaining 45 slots shall be crammed by qualifying competitions, which happen individually on every continent.
In 2026, there’ll nonetheless be 4 groups in a gaggle and the highest two will nonetheless progress to the following stage, however there shall be 12 teams relatively than eight.
And the eight finest third-placed groups — of 12 — within the teams will even progress, an identical format to the European Championships (which has 24 groups).
Thirty-two groups will progress to the knockout stage, which means an additional knockout spherical, earlier than the event continues from the spherical of 16 because it has in earlier tournaments.
The place are the largest video games?
The U.S., Canada and Mexico will play their three group video games of their dwelling nation.
Mexico Metropolis’s Azteca Stadium, which hosted the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals, will host the event’s opening recreation. The U.S. will host 78 matches total, whereas Canada and Mexico will host 13 every.
All the quarter-finals and each the semi-finals shall be within the U.S., together with the ultimate. The quarter-finals shall be in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Kansas Metropolis, whereas the semi-finals shall be in Dallas and Atlanta.
The twenty third World Cup ultimate will happen on the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on the outskirts of New York Metropolis, on July 19, 2026.
These stadiums are cut up into three areas, west, central and east, in an try and minimise journey for followers. However, the distances inside areas are huge, with Kansas Metropolis and Mexico Metropolis (1,385 miles aside) in the identical area, in addition to Toronto and Miami (1,239 miles aside).
(Yuki Iwamura/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Are tickets on sale?
No.
With greater than two years to go till the event kicks off, there may be little public details about tickets.
A web page on the FIFA web site merely permits individuals to register their particulars to obtain details about tickets when it’s obtainable. The Athletic contacted the event organisers for remark.
How will the ticketing course of work?
We don’t know for certain, however taking a look at earlier World Cups in addition to comparable occasions just like the European Championships, it’s doable to make some educated guesses.
Tickets for main tournaments are primarily cut up into three classes.
First, there are tickets allotted to member associations — the 2 international locations taking part in towards one another in a given match. These are typically given to supporters on the premise of loyalty, for instance by factors constructed up from following the nation in qualifiers.
How straightforward these shall be to pay money for varies tremendously relying on the nation — they are going to be in excessive demand for the host international locations, however simpler to come back throughout for nations far-off with much less of a travelling following.
The second class is these tickets given over to sponsors and different members of what FIFA likes to name the “soccer household”.
This doesn’t simply imply VIPs in glitzy hospitality bins. For final 12 months’s Champions League ultimate in Istanbul, solely about 40,000 went to followers of Manchester Metropolis and Inter Milan. The remaining 35,000 went to sponsors and all types of different individuals with hyperlinks to UEFA. A small variety of these could make their approach into the palms of atypical followers by tickets and giveaways.
Because the event progresses and the video games get extra glamorous, the demand from sponsors and different “impartial” supporters will get larger.
The third is the remaining. These are the tickets the general public should buy with out being a member of any nation’s loyalty scheme or a part of the soccer household.
How will these basic sale tickets get allotted?
We don’t know for certain however can check out how Germany, the host of this summer time’s European Championship, is allocating tickets.
There have been two phases of ballots by which individuals can choose to purchase a number of tickets in 4 totally different classes. Cheaper tickets are typically in larger demand, so it’s prone to be simpler to get a ticket by coming into the poll in a costlier class.
UEFA has not launched particulars of additional ticket gross sales. Nonetheless, there’ll probably be a restricted quantity of tickets on basic sale between now and the event starting in June, probably for the matches that includes much less glamorous groups at greater stadiums.
Demand for tickets in Germany has been extraordinarily excessive for a number of causes.
(Rob Pinney/Getty Photographs)
First, attending reside soccer matches is a large a part of German tradition, so demand from locals is excessive.
Second, the event is the one European Championship or World Cup in Western Europe happening between 2016 and 2028, besides Euro 2020, which came about throughout the continent however noticed journey closely restricted by Covid.
This implies big numbers of soccer followers throughout Europe need tickets for Germany.
It stays to be seen how robust demand shall be for World Cup 2026, notably in cities like Kansas Metropolis and Houston, which aren’t usually related to soccer — however issues within the U.S. are altering shortly in that respect.
How a lot do World Cup tickets value?
We don’t know but, however we will have a look at precedent.
It’s typically exhausting to offer a definitive reply to this query as a result of event organisers typically promote some tickets at low costs, that are in actuality very tough to pay money for, with most followers paying way more.
An evaluation by German sports activities consultancy Keller Sports activities in 2022 discovered that a mean ticket on the Qatar World Cup was £286, rising to £684 for the ultimate. This was a 46 per cent improve on the event in Russia in 2018.
Excluding restricted view tickets and a particular class solely obtainable to Qatari nationals, group stage tickets ranged in worth from 40 Riyals ($11) to 800 Riyals ($213).
This steadily elevated in worth because the event progressed, with ultimate tickets costing between 750 Riyals ($200) and 5850 Riyals ($1,560).
There can also be tickets obtainable on secondary resale websites the place costs are prone to be far larger.
These types of platforms are sometimes dangerous to make use of in Europe, with soccer organisations not cooperating with them due to deeply engrained cultural norms towards very excessive ticket costs.
However within the U.S., this taboo is just not in place and it was completely doable to purchase a Tremendous Bowl ticket by a reputable reseller — if in case you have $10,000 to spare.
It stays to be seen which method the World Cup will take.
How a lot do tickets value in comparison with the Tremendous Bowl and different main occasions?
The most affordable face-value tickets for this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl bought straight by the NFL had been about $2,000, far larger than for any main soccer match.
Tickets modified palms for about 5 instances this on the secondary market.
Tickets for the ultimate are prone to attain comparable eye-watering costs, however if you’re not too choosy about which recreation you go to, you’ll probably be capable of get tickets for early World Cup video games at way more reasonably priced costs.
Is it doable to attend each recreation on the World Cup?
Soccer YouTuber Theo Ogden, often called Thogden, attended each recreation of the Qatar World Cup in 2022, the primary individual in historical past to do that at a event.
This was doable due to Qatar’s tiny geographical dimension, though he did must miss half of a number of of the video games to suit all of them in.
However there’s completely no probability of anybody repeating the identical feat in 2026.
Over a manic 17 days from June 11 and June 27, your entire group stage shall be accomplished — all 72 video games of it. The final 4 of these days can have six video games on every of them, spanning your entire continent of North America.
With huge distances between stadiums, followers must plan their video games fastidiously.
(High picture: Charly Triballeau/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)