2026 World Cup Will Have Four-Team Groups and 24 More Games

Soccer’s 2026 World Cup in North America, already the biggest and the longest within the event’s historical past due to an enlargement of the sector, is about to develop much more as FIFA leaders had been poised to conform to a change in format that can add 24 extra video games.

The change will end in a marathon soccer championship — 48 groups taking part in 104 video games over as a lot as 40 days in three nations — and see the champion and the runner-up every play eight video games as an alternative of the present seven.

The format is about to be accredited on Tuesday after a gathering of the governing council of FIFA, soccer’s world governing physique and the organizer of the World Cup. It was confirmed by a number of individuals accustomed to the newest discussions, none of whom can be quoted by identify as a result of the change has not been confirmed or introduced.

The 2026 event — co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada — would be the first World Cup with 48 groups, expanded from the present 32-nation competitors that had been in place since 1998. Early discussions had centered round splitting the groups into 16 teams of three. But after the nail-biting end to the group stage in Qatar final 12 months, and with officers involved a couple of scenario the place three-team teams might be manipulated or groups might be eradicated after solely two video games, FIFA revisited the difficulty.

The heads of soccer’s six confederations met with FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino on Monday night time and none raised any objection to the proposed plan, in response to the individuals accustomed to the assembly. A proper affirmation of the brand new plan is anticipated in a while Tuesday, after a gathering of FIFA’s 36-member governing council that’s anticipated to equally green-light the modifications.