The International Football Federation (FIFA) has officially announced the major dates and locations for the next major world football event, on February 4. The cities of New York and Mexico have been chosen to host respectively the final and the opening match of the competition, which will be played for the first time between 48 teams in total.
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The final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada and played for the first time with 48 teams, will take place at MetLife Stadium in New York on July 19, FIFA announced on Sunday February 4. The opening ceremony and match will take place at Mexico City’s historic Azteca Stadium on June 11 and will honor the national team.
“ The fan experience is going to be amazing », promised Gianni Infantino, the head of the body, during the announcement ceremony from Miami. Italo-Switzerland hopes “ six million supporters ” And ” six billion viewers » for a tournament which promises to be more imposing than ever.
The format of the competition has been expanded to 48 teams, compared to 32 since 1998, for a total of 104 matches distributed between 16 stadiums already revealed in 2022: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Boston , Philadelphia, Miami and New York in the United States; Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico; Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.
Azteca chosen as opening for the 3rd time in history
The MetLife Stadium and its 82,500 seats, host to the New York Jets and Giants American football teams, located in New Jersey west of Manhattan, was preferred to Dallas and Los Angeles, two other cities considered to host the final. That of 1994 took place at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, in the suburbs of the Californian metropolis, where Brazil won its 4th star at the expense of Italy on penalties. The semi-finals of this next World Cup will take place in Dallas and Atlanta.
The current stadium replaced the “Giants Stadium” in 2010, which hosted three matches at the 1994 World Cup, including the surprise victory of Hristo Stoichkov’s Bulgaria in the quarterfinals against Lothar Matthäus’ Germany (2-1), then the defeat of the Bulgarians in the semi-finals against Italy carried by a double from Roberto Baggio (2-1).
The Azteca stadium, the beating heart of Mexican football, will be the first stadium in history to have the honors of opening the competition for the third time after the 1970 and 1986 editions, which respectively resulted in the coronations of Brazil of Pelé and of Maradona’s Argentina in this same enclosure.
The Copa América will serve as a warm-up
The match for third place will take place in Miami, where FIFA has set up offices and where superstar Lionel Messi has been performing at Inter Miami since last year. The Argentinian, aged 36, winner of the previous edition in Qatar in December 2022, has not closed the door to a presence in 2026. In the meantime, the Argentinian is already expected during the Copa América contested this year in the United States from June 20 to July 16 and which will serve as a full-scale test for the host country in view of the 2026 deadline.
The 48 teams for the 2026 World Cup will be divided into twelve groups of four. The first two in each group as well as the eight best third-placed teams will advance to the round of 16, extending the knockout phase by one stage, which until now began with the round of 16. This next World Cup must be one of all commercial records for FIFA, while the windfall from the men’s tournament represents the bulk of the income which it then redistributes to its 211 member federations.
(With AFP)