More days. More rounds. More matches. In short, more money. FIFA approved this Tuesday in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, where it is holding its 73rd Congress, the new format for the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and which for the first time will be played by 48 teams.
The tournament will begin with an initial phase with 12 groups of four teams, of which the first two and the eight best third-placed teams will advance to the knockout round. To accommodate so many teams, a new round of round of 16 is introduced -until now there was direct access to the round of 16- and, from there, direct knockouts as usual.
This new format implies that the tournament will last 40 days -the Qatar event lasted 30- and 104 games will be played, forty more than in the last World Cup. The increase in matches will also imply an increase in profits, which FIFA has budgeted for this World Cup cycle above 10,000 million dollars, almost double what was obtained in Qatar.
This decision implies a change of course with respect to what President Infantino had announced at a press conference held at the Doha Press Center during the World Cup in Qatar.
The expansion to 48 teams necessarily implied a change in format and FIFA had been working for months with the idea of dividing the teams into 16 groups of 3. But, apparently, the emotion experienced in Qatar when solving the groups of 4 and the more than real possibility that many teams will be eliminated before the last match in groups of 3 have pushed the 36 world soccer leaders taking part in the Congress to adopt a new format.
FIFA has also adopted a decision regarding the rest of the players in the year of the World Cup. Club competitions, except for the continental finals, must end on May 24, 2026. Taking into account that the World Cup final will be held on July 19, players not called up are guaranteed a 56-day rest, the same as in the appointments of 2010, 2014 and 2018, cut in 2022 due to the change of the tournament date.
