By: Derek Sun

Four years from now, 48 countries will compete for the 2026 soccer World Cup. The tournament will be hosted in cities across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. FIFA, soccer’s governing body, announced that these cities will be hosting the FIFA World Cup: Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Guadalajara, Kansas City, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Monterrey, Mexico City, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, and New York/New Jersey. Locations for particular matches will be announced later.

This is also the first time that the World Cup will include 48 teams, instead of the traditional 32 teams. This will include more countries while still having a tournament-based competition. It will also be the first time that the World Cup is staged across 3 nations instead of one. The “main” opening match will probably be Los Angeles or Mexico City, cities that have both hosted the finals.

Staging the World Cup across 3 large countries will be a transportation difficulty for teams and their fans. The United Bid fixed this by creating regional clusters for teams. But before soccer fans start to travel to North America, the 2022 World Cup will be hosted in Qatar from November 21 to December 18.

Sources: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1655669621670x196115425638783800/FIFA%20announces%202026%20World%20Cup%20host%20cities%20in%20U.S.%2C%20Canada%20and%20Mexico%20_%20NPR.pdf