22 World Cup came to an end this weekend, marking the end of an era before the World Cup entered the United States, Mexico and Canada four years later.
The current competition system is that 32 teams are divided into 8 groups, and 4 teams in each group enter the knockout stage. This competition system is adopted for the first time in the 1998 World Cup. This is what a generation of fans know, spanning 24 years, 7 versions.
In 2026, 48 teams will participate in the World Cup - 45 qualifiers countries plus 3 host countries. ( FIFA Chairman Infantino said that hosts do not need to pass the qualifiers.)
This means that the knockout mode consists of 8 groups of 32 teams is over, and the top two teams will create the perfect 16 teams through the knockout.
World Cup lasted about 32 days under the current format (although in Qatar was compressed to 29 days), but if FIFA expands its current 64 games to 104, it will take at least 35 days.
This is the largest expansion in the history of the World Cup. In 1930, 1934, 1938 and 1950, only 13 to 16 countries participated. Starting from 1954, a total of 16 teams participated in the World Cup, until the increase in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico increased to 24, and the increase in the 1998 World Cup in France increased to 32. The
teams increased from 32 to 48, an increase of 50%, but it is difficult for any country to host this event due to the needs of venues and infrastructure.
Infantino was initially elected FIFA president on a proposal to expand the team to 40, which he firmly defended when he announced the decision in 2017, which FIFA expects to bring in $1 billion in additional revenue and $640 million in additional profit.
Infantino said the money will be reinvested in football: "Increasing the size of participating teams will increase investment in football development to ensure that the team can qualify for the competition."
has 17 additional qualifying places (16 new teams plus host quotas, and host quotas will no longer be retained separately).
Asia : 8 (+4)
Africa : 9 (+4)
North America, Central America and Caribbean : 6 (+3)
Europe : 16 (+3)
South America : 6 (+2)
Oceania : 1 (+1)
United States, Mexico and Canada will be included in the six quotas allocated to North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
passes the Intercontinental playoffs, and there are two places to compete for to complete the top 48. A total of six teams – one in five leagues except Europe, plus the Central and North American and Caribbean leagues as another in the host league – will compete.
Who will be eligible to participate in the World Cup where 48 teams participated?
Let us take the 2022 World Cup as an example to expand the participating teams to 48 (FIFA once strongly considered doing this).
To illustrate this, in each league's qualifying match, additional qualifying places have been handed over to suboptimal countries. (Italy failed to even make it to the UEFA playoff finals, and they still missed the finals.) The bolded team in
is an additional 16 teams.
Africa: Algeria , Cameroon , DRC , Egypt , Mali , Morocco , Nigeria , Senegal , Ghana, Tunisia
Asia: Australia, Iran, Iraq , Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia , South Korea, UAE
North America, Central America and the Caribbean: Canada, Costa Rica , Jamaica , Mexico, Panama , United States
Europe: Belgium , Croatia , Denmark, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Northern Macedonia , Serbia , Spain, Sweden , Swiss , Poland , Portugal, Ukrainian , Welsh
Oceania: New Zealand
South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile , Colombia , Ecuador , Peru , Uruguay
Two FIFA best-ranked teams (Chile and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) who are eligible to participate in the Intercontinental playoffs are arranged in the last place. (Other countries entering the playoffs are El Salvador , Honduras , Solomon Islands and Syria .)
Mali, North Macedonia (and host Qatar) will participate in the World Cup for the first time.
We calculate the teams qualified to participate in the 2022 World Cup as 48 teams, and we can get the 2026 World Cup group stage situation.
Option 1:16 groups, 3 teams in each group
Nearly six years ago, the FIFA Council voted to increase the scale of the World Cup and approved a competition system, dividing 48 teams into 16 groups, 3 teams in each group, and the top two entered the top 32. But FIFA's global football affairs head Arcena Wenger said that this situation is still possible and the final decision will be made in 2023.
total matches will increase from 64 to 80, and FIFA believes the match can be played within the usual 32 days. (The Qatar World Cup is held during the season of domestic clubs in Europe, so it is compressed to 29 days.)
Each group has no more than one team from each league, with 16 European teams each having one seat, and the rest will be allocated according to ranking.
According to the latest FIFA world rankings, the lottery list is as follows:
First level ( UEFA ): Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Portugal, Ukraine, Wales
Second level : Mexico, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Senei Gal, Iran, Morocco, Peru, Japan, South Korea, Chile, Tunisia, Costa Rica
third tier : Nigeria, Algeria, Australia, Egypt, Cameroon, Ecuador, Mali, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Ghana, Jamaica, Iraq, UAE, Democratic Republic of the Congo, New Zealand
According to ranking, Canada should be divided into the third tier, but along with the United States and Mexico are divided into the second tier, because they will be pre-assigned to a group as hosts to compete in their own country.
test draw results in the following groupings:
A group : Canada, Wales, Algeria
B group : France, South Korea, Nigeria
C group : United States, Serbia, Democratic Republic of the Congo
D group : Portugal, Japan, Egypt
html l0E group : Switzerland, Senegal, UAEF group : Belgium, Iran, Ecuador
G group : Poland, Uruguay, Australia
H group : North Macedonia, Peru, Cameroon
I group : England, Colombia, Jamaica
2mmacai, JamaicaJ group : Croatia, Tunisia, Iraq
K group : Ukraine, Morocco, Saudi Arabia
L group : Netherlands, Argentina, Panama
M group : Denmark, Chile, Ghana
N group : Sweden, Brazil, New Zealand
O Group : Germany, Costa Rica, Qatar
P Group : Mexico, Spain, Mali
The first two teams in each group will enter the top 32, which has caused controversy because it means that in the last group match, both teams may be at the expense of the third team to ensure both teams can advance. At the 1982 World Cup, four teams were divided into a group, but the final game was not played at the same time, with West Germany and Austria qualifying at 1-0, which means both teams advanced at the cost of Algeria, and three teams advanced with 4 points. It was after this incident that FIFA adopted the same approach as the group stage finals were held simultaneously.
FIFA said that all group stage draws can be decided through a penalty shootout to avoid conspiracy, but this still does not eliminate the possibility of a specific result where both sides win 1-0 in the third game.
According to the draw results, there are few games in the group stage. Mexico vs Spain and Netherlands vs Argentina were the highlights of this mock draw. Another criticism of this format is that it reduces a lot of risks and two-thirds of the team advance. In addition, each country will only be guaranteed to participate in two games, not three.
For these reasons, FIFA is considering reconsideration and will almost certainly give up this option.
Option 2:12 group, 4 teams in each group
According to this competition system, 48 teams are divided into four teams, just like our current competition system. However, 16 or 32 teams must stand out from the group to form a balanced knockout stage. This means that the top two teams in each group plus the third-ranked 8 best teams will produce a round of 32. In the past two European Cup , UEFA has adopted a similar system to allow the third-ranked team to advance to the knockout stage.
has the advantage of creating a regular group stage with two finals, which can produce what we see in the 2022 World Cup. The risk of qualifying for the third-place team will be smaller, but this feels like a more natural system for the World Cup. All teams have three games.
FIFA is considering two methods:
1) 12 groups, each group of 4 teams enter a knockout bracket.
2) 24 teams are divided into two half games, with a total of 6 groups, with 4 teams in each group. The finals will be held together in the two halfs.
They are very similar, in option 2 you can't play against your other half of the team before the final. In addition, the eight third-place teams with the best overall score may not be able to advance, as four third-place teams are required to advance in every half. The draw group of
will also be slightly different and may return to the original system, with the first group consisting of the host and the highest ranked teams in FIFA.
Group 1: Mexico, United States, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Argentina, France, England, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark
Group 2: Germany, Croatia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Colombia, Senegal, Wales, Iran, Serbia, Morocco, Peru, Japan
Group 3: Sweden, Poland, Ukraine, South Korea, Chile, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Algeria, Australia, Egypt, Cameroon
Pot 4: Ecuador, Mali, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Ghana, Jamaica, North Macedonia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Democratic Republic of Congo, New Zealand
Except for Europe, each continent can only have at most one team participating in each group competition. Europe needs to have four groups, with two teams in each group participating in the competition. The
test draw produces the following groups:
Group A : Argentina, Switzerland, Sweden, Iraq
Group B : Belgium, Peru, Costa Rica, Ghana
Group C : Canada, Iran, Chile Group D : Netherlands, Morocco, South Korea, Jamaica
Group E : Mexico, Serbia, Egypt, Qatar
Group F : Denmark, Uruguay, Cameroon, United Arab Emirates
G group : England, Croatia, Nigeria, Ecuador
Group H : United States, Colombia, Poland, Democratic Republic of Congo
I group : Portugal, Senegal, Australia, Panama
Group J : Brazil, Japan, Ukraine, Mali
Group K : Spain, Wales, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia
Group L : France, Germany, Algeria, New Zealand
The problem with a group of four teams is that there are too many extra games. The 2022 World Cup has 64 games and a three-team group stage format of 80 games, but with a four-team group and 32 rounds, we will see 104 games - a 47% increase per tournament. The duration of the World Cup must exceed 32 days, and must be extended to at least 35 days.
The European Club Association, which exists to protect and promote European club football, opposes the addition of 48 games because of the large impact it would have on the domestic schedule. FIFA said the World Cup could still be held within 32 days, allaying concerns, but a switch to 104 games would only result in a larger and longer World Cup.
In the 1994 United States World Cup , only 24 teams participated in 52 games (36 of which were group matches). By 2026, there may be 104 games (72 in the group stage).
The 1994 World Cup in the United States was held primarily on the East Coast (Eastern Time); of the nine host cities, only Stanford and Pasadena were on the West Coast ( Pacific Time), Chicago and Dallas were on Central Time.
In 2026, the World Cup will be held in 16 venues in three countries and across time zones.
Pacific time (4) : Vancouver , Seattle , San Francisco , Los Angeles
Central time (6) : Guadalajara , Mexico City , Monterey , Dallas, Houston, Kansas City
Eastern Time (6): Atlanta, Miami, Boston, , New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, , Toronto
In 1994, the World Cup kick-off times were more tailored to European audiences, with no games after 4:30pm PT (12:30am UK time).
FIFA will not schedule two games to be played at the same time, except for the final group game, and with so many games to be played, the games will likely be stretched into one day to maximize the use of time zones.
The first two group stages of 1994 only had 24 games, so evening kick-offs were avoided in Europe. But since 48 games have to be played within the same time frame and are played across time zones, this will be unavoidable without extending the game time.
So, at the 2026 World Cup, we can see that the first game of the day begins at 1pm ET (6pm ET). The final will end on the West Coast at 11pm Pacific Time (2am ET, 7am ET) although playing late at night in ET is not ideal.
At 2014 Brazil World Cup , Côte d'Ivoire vs. Japan is a match played at 10 pm local time (2 am in the UK). (In the first two rounds of group stage, there will be no more than three games every other day). In fact, Qatar has made 10pm local time one of its main kick-off times, the first time this has happened in the World Cup.
