Almost three and a half years before the next World Cup, which will not only be played for 48 teams for the first time in 2026, but will also be held in three different countries for the first time, FIFA has answered an open but not insignificant question: with the USA, Mexico and Canada, the three host nations are automatically qualified for the tournament. On the other hand, it is still unclear which mode the 2026 World Cup will be played in.
Starting positions of the hosts from the CONCACAF contingent
At a meeting of the FIFA Council, it was decided that the previous rule that the hosts do not have to qualify for the World Cup finals, but are seeded for the field of participants, will remain in place despite the expansion to three host countries. As a result, only 45 places will be up for grabs in World Cup qualifying, with the only impact being for the continental confederation CONCACAF, to which the USA, Mexico and Canada belong.
As a result, three of the six World Cup places for North and Central American countries and the Caribbean have already been taken. In the CONCACAF qualification, it is therefore only about three fixed World Cup tickets. In addition, there is the chance of two more World Cup starting places in intercontinental play-offs, in which all associations apart from Europe take part.
Protests from other CONCACAF nations are also not to be expected because the three hosts of the 2026 World Cup qualified through sporting means at the most recent World Cup 2022 in Qatar and would have been among the clear favorites in a new qualification.
World Cup 2026 with 80 or 104 games?
FIFA has not yet commented on the mode in which the 2026 World Cup will be held. According to the world association, the details of this will be communicated “in due course”.
The original plan to play in the preliminary round with 16 groups of three, from which the two best teams move into a sixteenth final, from which it should then continue in knockout mode, has faltered in recent weeks. Not least because FIFA President Gianni Infantino also brought up the possibility of playing with twelve groups of four during the 2022 World Cup. In this case, in addition to the two first in the group, the eight best third in the group would also advance, again to a sixteenth final.
The number of World Cup games, which was 64 in Qatar, would then increase significantly to 104 matches. In the first variant with 16 groups of three, the increase to 80 World Cup games would be somewhat more moderate. However, the burden on the individual teams would remain the same or only increase slightly. In the model with 16 groups of three, the world champion would have played seven games as before, with twelve groups of four there would be a maximum of eight matches per team.
As usual, 24 teams will take part in the EURO 2024, host Germany has also qualified in advance and therefore does not have to participate in the EM 2024 qualification.