The next World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and will run from June 11 to July 19, 2026.
This will be the first time the tournament has been expanded from 32 teams to 48 teams.
That means there will be a total of 104 games, more than ever before.
With the tournament still a ways off, few ticket details are available, but here’s what we know so far:
Where are the matches?
The World Cup will be held in 16 cities across three countries, more than any other tournament to date.
Three of these locations are in Mexico: Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Mexico City.
The other two are on either coast of Canada, in Vancouver and Toronto.
The remaining 11 cities are in the United States: Miami, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Kansas City, Dallas and New York City.
This US list includes the closest major city to each stadium, with some venues located in lesser known neighbourhoods, such as East Rutherford, New Jersey in the case of New York and Santa Clara in the case of San Francisco.
Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Mexico (Sergio Navarrete/Getty Images)
How does the tournament work?
Since 1998, the World Cup has featured 32 teams, providing a nice symmetry, but this time it’s bigger, with 48 teams, which necessitates a slightly more complicated format.
The tournament has previously been split into eight groups of four teams, with each country playing each other once, after which the top two teams from each group advance to four knockout stages (the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final).
The United States, Canada and Mexico all qualify automatically, while the remaining 45 spots will be filled through separate qualifying tournaments on each continent.
In 2026 there will still be four teams in each group, with the top two progressing to the next stage, but there will be 12 groups instead of eight.
In addition, the top eight third-placed teams from each of the 12 groups will advance to the final tournament, a format similar to that of the European Championships (24 teams).
32 teams will progress to the knockout stage (an additional knockout round) after which the tournament will continue with the round of 16, as in previous editions.
Where are the biggest matches?
The United States, Canada and Mexico will play all three group stage matches at home.
The opening match of the tournament will be held at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, home of the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals. The United States will host a total of 78 matches, while Canada and Mexico will host 13 each.
All quarterfinals, both semifinals and the final will be played in the United States, with the quarterfinals taking place in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Kansas City, while the semifinals will be played in Dallas and Atlanta.
The 23rd World Cup Final will be held on July 19, 2026 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City.
These stadiums are divided into three regions – West, Central and East – to minimize fan travel, but the distances within the regions are enormous: Kansas City and Mexico City (1,385 miles apart) are in the same region, as are Toronto and Miami (1,239 miles apart).
(Iwamura Yuki/AFP via Getty Images)
Are tickets available for purchase?
no.
With more than two years until the tournament kicks off, little information about tickets has been released.
FIFA’s website has a page where people can register their details to receive information when tickets go on sale. The Athletic has contacted tournament organisers for comment.
How does the ticketing process work?
We don’t know for sure, but we can make some guesses by looking at similar events such as past World Cups and European Championships.
Tickets for major tournaments are basically divided into three categories.
Firstly, there are tickets allocated to the two nations, or member associations, competing in a particular match, and these are usually awarded to supporters based on their loyalty, usually through points accumulated by supporting their country in the qualifiers.
How readily available these are will vary greatly from country to country – they will be in high demand in the host country, but more readily available in more remote countries with fewer tourists.
The second category are tickets distributed to sponsors and other members of the “football family,” as FIFA likes to call it.
And that doesn’t just mean VIPs in glittering hospitality boxes: At last year’s Champions League final in Istanbul, only about 40,000 tickets went to fans of Manchester City and Inter Milan. The remaining 35,000 went to sponsors and various people connected to UEFA. A small number of these may end up in the hands of ordinary fans through tickets and giveaways.
As the tournament progresses and the matches become more glamorous, demand from sponsors and other “neutral” supporters will increase.
The third type is other tickets, which are tickets that can be purchased by the general public, even if you are not a member of any country’s loyalty program or part of the football family.
How will general sale tickets be allocated?
We don’t know for sure, but let’s take a look at how Germany, the hosts of this summer’s European Championships, are allocating tickets.
The lottery is split into two stages, and you can purchase multiple tickets across four different categories. The cheaper tickets are usually in higher demand, so if you enter the lottery in a more expensive category you’ll likely have a better chance of getting a ticket.
UEFA has not released details about upcoming ticket sales, but it is likely that tickets for matches featuring lesser-known teams, possibly in larger stadiums, will go on general sale between now and the start of the tournament in June.
Tickets are in high demand in Germany for several reasons.
(Rob Pinney/Getty Images)
Firstly, watching live football matches is a big part of German culture, so there is high demand from locals.
Secondly, the tournament will be the only European Championship or World Cup to be held in Western Europe between 2016 and 2028, with the exception of Euro 2020, which was held across the continent but saw severe travel restrictions due to COVID-19.
This means a huge number of soccer fans across Europe are clamoring for tickets to Germany.
It remains to be seen how strong demand for the 2026 World Cup will be, especially in cities such as Kansas City or Houston that don’t have much to do with soccer, but things are changing rapidly in that respect in the United States.
How much are World Cup tickets?
We don’t know yet, but we can see the precedent.
This question is often difficult to answer definitively, because tournament organizers often sell tickets at a low price, but in reality they are very hard to get and most fans end up paying much more.
An analysis by German sports consultancy Keller Sport for 2022 found that the average price of a ticket for the Qatar World Cup was £286, rising to £684 for the final – a 46% increase compared to the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Prices for group stage tickets ranged from 40 riyals ($11) to 800 riyals ($213), excluding limited-attendance tickets and special categories available only to Qatari nationals.
Ticket prices rose steadily as the tournament progressed, with final ticket prices ranging from 750 riyals ($200) to 5,850 riyals ($1,560).
Tickets may also be available on secondary resale sites, where the price may be much higher.
These kinds of platforms are often risky to use in Europe, where soccer bodies do not cooperate with them because of deeply ingrained cultural norms against inflated ticket prices.
But in the US, this taboo didn’t exist, and if you had $10,000 to spare, it was entirely possible to buy Super Bowl tickets through a trusted reseller.
It remains to be seen what approach the World Cup will take.
How do ticket prices compare to the Super Bowl and other major events?
The cheapest face value ticket for this year’s Super Bowl sold directly by the NFL was about $2,000, far more than any other major football game.
Tickets sold for about five times that price on the secondary market.
Tickets for the final are likely to be just as expensive, but if you’re not too picky about which match you go to, you’re likely to be able to get tickets for earlier World Cup matches at a much more affordable price.
Is it possible to watch every World Cup match?
Football YouTuber Theo Ogden, better known as Togden, watched every single match of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the first person in history to do so at the tournament.
This was possible due to Qatar’s small size, but in order to play all the games he had to miss half of some matches.
But there’s no way anyone will be able to repeat the feat in 2026.
All 72 group stage matches will be completed over 17 days, from June 11 to June 27. The final four days will see six matches played each across the North American continent.
Fans will have to plan their matches carefully as the distances between stadiums are so great.
(Top photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)