Fifa announces fixtures of 2026 World Cup, will be the longest one lasting 39 days

The FIFA World Cup 2026 will inaugurate with the opening match being held in the historic Estadio Aztec of Mexico City. The Azteca will become the first stadium to host World Cup tournament games in three separate editions after 1970 and 1986. The venue hosted the finals of the 1970 and 1986 tournaments. 

FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced on Sunday that the FIFA World Cup 2026 will begin on 11th June 2026 in Mexico at the stadium that can accommodate 83,264 spectators and where the great Diego Maradona lifted the golden trophy for Argentina. 

The other two host cities in Mexico are Guadalajara and Monterrey with both cities hosting four matches and Mexico City hosting five matches. Monterrey will have one knockout game and the Estadio Aztec will have two. Mexico will play two group-stage matches in Guadalajara and one in Mexico City. 

Canada will have its first-ever FIFA World Cup match being held in Toronto on 12th June 2026. The BMO Field will host one group stage match of Canada whereas Canada's west-coast beautiful city Vancouver's BC Place will host two matches of the host nation. 

Vancouver and Toronto will host seven and six matches of FIFA World Cup 2026 respectively. Two of the matches will be knockout games in Vancouver and one knockout game to be played in Toronto. 

USA will have its first FIFA World Cup 2026 match being held at the SoFi Stadium of Los Angeles' Inglewood. The indoor-outdoor stadium in L.A. will be a spectacle for fans around the world as it can accommodate 70,000 fans at once. USA will play two of its group-stage games in Los Angeles and one in Seattle. 

Dallas will host the most number of matches (9) in FIFA World Cup 2026 although the final is set to be hosted by none other than New York's New Jersey on 19th July 2026. Miami will host the third-place decider, which is the bronze final, on 18th July 2026. 

There was a titanic tussle between New York's New Jersey and Dallas regarding the hosting of the final but New Jersey grabbed the attention of FIFA at the final hour with its prospect and the MetLife Stadium. 

Meanwhile, Mexico and Canada will be done hosting the matches of the tournament at the Round of 16 as the USA will completely take over from the Quarter-final onwards. Not only that but it is worth mentioning that Mexico's Guadalajara is the lone city without any knockout games to be hosted. 

Number of matches hosted by host cities:

9 - Dallas
8 - New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta
7 - Vancouver, Boston, Houston, Miami
6 - Toronto, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Seattle, San Francisco
5 - Mexico City
4 - Guadalajara, Monterrey

Lastly, for the first time, the FIFA World Cup will include 48 teams, an expansion of 16 compared with the previous seven tournaments. The teams will be split into 12 groups of 4 teams, with the top two of each group and the eight best third-placed teams progressing to a new round of 32. The total number of games played will increase from 64 to 104, and the number of games played by teams reaching the final four will increase from seven to eight.