The countdown to the 2026 World Cup is on! Each day ahead of the tournament’s return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world’s biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year’s global event.
The 2026 World Cup is just built different.
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For the first time, this year’s World Cup will feature 48 teams instead of 32, a massive expansion approved by FIFA that reshapes the competition after nearly three decades of the same format. From 1998 to 2022, the World Cup field held steady at 32 nations. This June, it gets a lot more crowded.
The scale of the event is changing in other ways, too.
The 2026 version will be staged across three host countries — the United States, Canada and Mexico — the first time the World Cup has spanned that many nations. Mexico will become the first country to host matches at three separate tournaments, having previously staged the tourney in 1970 and 1986.
Those earlier editions produced some of the sport’s most iconic moments. In 1970, Pelé led Brazil to the title in his final World Cup. Sixteen years later the event was back in the country with Diego Maradona helping Argentina to the title over West Germany.
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This will be the first time hosting for Canada and second time for the U.S. following the 1994 World Cup, which helped ignite modern professional soccer in the country.
With 16 more teams qualifying, that means more matches will take place across North America than in previous World Cups. The 32-team tournaments had 64 total matches. The 2026 World Cup will feature 104 in 38 days.
Even the final is getting a refresh. The championship match at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on July 19 will include a Super Bowl-style halftime show produced by Coldplay manager Phil Harvey and lead singer Chris Martin — a break that could surpass the traditional 15-minute halftime outlined in soccer’s Laws of the Game.
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