Since Infantino was elected FIFA president in 2016, he promoted the idea of a tournament with 48 teams. (Screenshot: AFP – YouTube)
FIFA once again changed the format of the 2026 World Cup, which will be held jointly in the United States, Canada and Mexico, although it will maintain the participation of 48 teams for the first time in history.
The president of the highest governing body of world football, Gianni Infantino, gave up the idea of creating 16 groups of only three members and announced that there will be 12 groups of four participants where the first two of each section and the best eight qualify for the next phase. third places to total 32 national teams. From there they will begin the path of confrontations crossed in a single match in search of the world title.
An important date for the diary ????????
The FIFA Council has confirmed when the @FIFAWorldCup 2026 final will take place – as well as the format for the first-ever 48-team edition. pic.twitter.com/fdXZkLfTvh
— FIFA (@FIFAcom) March 14, 2023
The new proposal, which will be final, involves a record number of 104 matches, instead of the 64 that had been played in recent editions of the World Cups. The 1998 World Cup in France was the first to adopt the current 32-team format, which ended in Qatar 2022. For the same reason, the duration will grow to 39 days from when the ball rolls for the first time in the group stage. until the celebration of the final.
Infantino said that after a “thorough review that considered sporting integrity, player well-being, team travel, commercial and sporting appeal, as well as the team and fan experience,” a new proposal was drawn up that returns to the traditional format of groups of four members.
However, European clubs and leagues say they have not been consulted about these changes and will surely disagree, as they mean exposing players to longer service with their national teams.
Adding more games will mean an extra potential of 1.5 million extra tickets to enter the stadiums and higher income from the sale of television rights. Analysts estimate revenue of at least 11 billion. In the three host countries, 16 cities will be enabled, 11 in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada.
Since Infantino was elected FIFA president in 2016, he promoted the idea of a tournament with 48 teams. To that end, he convinced the voting members from Asia and Africa, making them see that with more teams their federations would have more places to qualify for the event.
His critics affirm that the inclusion of more countries will lower the quality of the tournament and will make it very long.