FIFA has announced that the 2026 World Cup, to be held across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, will officially feature the 48-team expanded field that has been so often discussed over recent years.
The traditional 32-team format will be used one last time at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar before being scrapped and replaced by the new expanded format.
It's not the first time that FIFA has amended the World Cup format in an attempt to continue to grow the value and popularity of its marquee event. With a greater global presence and the growth of the game trending upwards, FIFA has looked to include more countries, and thus generate greater worldwide interest in the event. The addition of matches contributes to an increase in broadcast and commercial revenue.
The Sporting News brings you a closer look at how the expanded 2026 World Cup will work, as well as how the change in format could affect the game both positively and negatively.
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How many teams in World Cup 2026?
FIFA confirmed on January 10, 2017 that the 2026 World Cup would expand participation to 48 teams.
This is a 16-team increase from the previous format that has seen 32 teams reach the final tournament every four years since 1998. The World Cup has been run as a 32-team tournament for seven editions since France '98, which increased participation from the 24 competitors in 1994.
The increase in teams will see the total games played increase from 64 to 80. However, the maximum number of matches played by each finalist will not increase, remaining at just seven — two group stage games and five knockout stage games.
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World Cup 2026 format with 48 teams
While FIFA looked to increase the total matches by increasing the number of participants, the world governing body was also careful not to increase the overall load on teams and players. So FIFA came up with a tournament structure to meet both objectives.
The 2022 World Cup, the final tournament 32-team edition, will feature eight groups of four teams, as has been custom since 1998. The top two teams from each group advance to the Round of 16, which represents the beginning of the single elimination knockout stages.
Starting in 2026, to accommodate a 48-team tournament, FIFA reorganized the group stage into 16 groups of three teams each. The top two teams in each group will advance to a massive 32-team knockout stage featuring single elimination.
This format was chosen over other alternatives. FIFA also considered a 48-team tournament featuring a 32-team playoff round with the top 16 ranked teams earning byes, but that was thought to be unfair from a sporting perspective. There were also two formats worked around a 40-team tournament, but FIFA preferred the 48-team setup.
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Which teams will qualify for expanded World Cup 2026?
In May of 2017, FIFA confirmed which confederations will get extra places in the 2026 World Cup.
The confederations receiving the most berths are Africa which earns four guaranteed places plus an intercontinental playoff slot. Asia is next, earning four additional places. The European confederation receives three extra, as does North America, while South America earns three. Oceania, meanwhile, earns one.
Below is a comparison of the 2022 World Cup places, as they have been in place since 1998, and the new expansion for the 2026 World Cup.
| Region | Confederation Name | 2022 Places | 2026 Places | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia | AFC | 4.5 | 8.5 | +4 |
| Africa | CAF | 5 | 9.5 | +4.5 |
| N. America | CONCACAF | 3.5 | 6.5 (+0.5)* | +3 |
| S. America | CONMEBOL | 4.5 | 6.5 | +2 |
| Oceania | OFC | 0.5 | 1.5 | +1 |
| Europe | UEFA | 13 | 16 | +3 |
| TOTAL | 31 (+host) | 48 | +18 |
*CONCACAF earns an additional intercontinental playoff spot as 2026 host
The intercontinental playoffs have also been expanded, from four teams to six teams. Five of the teams will be determined rigidly from tournament to tournament as indicated by the "half places" in the table above, with the sixth team coming from an additional slot awarded to the host confederation (in 2026, that is CONCACAF).
The six intercontinental playoff teams will be seeded according to FIFA Ranking, with the top two earning a bye and the other four playing in a preliminary round.
Hosts automatically qualify for 2026 World Cup
One wrinkle to the 2026 World Cup format is that the three hosts — the United States, Canada, and Mexico — will all qualify automatically, as is tradition for the World Cup tournament. This has not yet been officially confirmed by FIFA, but is widely expected by the entire international community, as laid out in the official 2026 United bid submission.
At this point, it's unclear how many qualifying positions the CONCACAF confederation will be awarded for the 2026 World Cup, and if the three automatic qualifying nations will affect the remaining available slots.
Usually, the host nation's automatic qualification does not use up a direct berth from the respective confederation's qualification allocation. For example, in the 2022 World Cup, hosts Qatar do not count as part of Asia's four direct berths.
In the 2002 World Cup, the only other one to be hosted jointly by multiple countries, both hosts Japan and South Korea qualified automatically. However, those slots were counted as part of Asia's allocation of four total direct spots. Thus, only two other Asian teams — China and Saudi Arabia — earned a World Cup berth via qualifying from the Asian region, while a third team Iran qualified for the intercontinental playoffs but lost.
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History of the FIFA World Cup formats for men's tournaments
While recent World Cup history has stayed fairly static in terms of competition format, it has changed quite a bit compared to the original tournament in 1930.
The most familiar 32-team participation structure was only brought about in 1998, as FIFA increased qualifying sides from 24 teams, a total last seen at the 1994 World Cup in the United States. That 24-team format was utilized for four tournaments, dating back to the 1982 World Cup where participation was increased from 16 teams.
There have also been numerous format changes. The 1982 World Cup was the first to see participation increase from 16 to 24, and it used a format that sported two group stages. Six groups of four awarded 12 participants passage to the second group stage, where four groups of three were then drawn. That second group stage sent the four group winners to the semifinal knockout round.
For the 1986 World Cup, while participation remained at 24, the format changed to just one group stage, still with six groups of four. The top two teams moved on to the knockout stage (12 total), together with the four highest-ranked third-placed teams for a Round of 16 knockout stage.
The wildest World Cup format was unveiled in 1950 when no actual final was contested. Instead, what was then a 16-team field contested an initial group stage involving four groups of four teams. The four group winners then advanced to a final group, with the winner crowned champion.
However, as it happened, the final match of the group stage ultimately decided the winner, with Uruguay beating Brazil 2-1 to top the group, and it is thus considered the "final" even though it was not officially designated as such.
Positives and negatives of 2026 format change
With any massive structure reformat, there will always be discussions and debate about which is preferable.
Upon the announcement of the new format for 2026, there was significant backlash on social media. Here is a rundown of what the World Cup will gain and what it will lose with the move to an expanded field of 48 teams.
Positives of 2026 World Cup expansion
While there's been plenty of criticism around the 2026 World Cup expansion, there are some advantages to the new format.
Teams that don't often reach the World Cup will get a chance to reach the tournament and play on the biggest stage, and alongside that, fans can get to see rare global matchups as teams from different parts of the world are forced to go head to head.
Additionally, while teams had some room for error with four-team groups (three matches each) in the initial stage of the tournament, the new format with only two group stage matches means a smaller margin for error, which could see some top teams slip and be left out in the cold. The added urgency and drama could make for some memorable moments and potential upsets that will resonate worldwide.
On that same note, the expansion of the knockout stage to feature 32 teams instead of 16 adds an additional element of chaos. While a larger single elimination tournament bracket doesn't lend itself to competitively crowning the "best" team with the trophy, it can lead to a thrilling tournament that puts top teams in peril on a regular basis, much like the March Madness college basketball tournament produces every year in the United States.
Negatives of 2026 World Cup expansion
There are two major areas of criticism that the new format has been faced with.
First, as mentioned above, a more "chaotic" style of play does not produce a deserving champion as often. While upsets are fun for fans, leaving top sides in peril on more occasions can lead to the most popular teams and players out of contention for the later rounds. It can be fun to see underdogs make deep runs in the competition, but ultimately fans want to see the best teams in the final rounds. Ratings often reflect this line of thinking, and FIFA could put itself at larger risk of less desirable semifinal and final rounds.
Second, and most critically, FIFA took considerable criticism regarding the expansion with regards to World Cup qualification. With 16 additional tickets available, some of the allure that came with the difficult qualifying road is somewhat lost as more teams make it in. For this reason, top teams in each confederation will likely find World Cup qualification matches less and less important, instead reduced to quasi-friendlies.
For example, should CONCACAF get two or three additional places in the expanded World Cup format, the United States would find it nearly impossible to miss qualifying for future World Cups, creating a very different competition dynamic to what existed in previous years.
Likewise, in South America's CONMEBOL region, Brazil and Argentina already are a cut above the rest of the continent's teams as it stands, and expansion of the berths will only decrease the pressure and importance of each qualification match.
Qualifying for the World Cup has come to represent a crowning achievement for all countries regardless of pedigree and skill. Italy missing the World Cup (as it has in 2018 and 2022), for example, is well within the realm of possibility in the current format. Likewise, a country like Wales or Canada reaching the World Cup for the first time in decades becomes a celebrated event.
Instead, for many of the top teams, and even some of the middle-tier sides, more spots available means qualification will be nearly assured and the importance of World Cup qualifying will be significantly diminished.
