FIFA reveal Host Cities for the 2026 “North American” World Cup

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By Martin Graham | 18th Jun 2022

The plans for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are underway and the 32 participating teams have been decided through gruelling qualification matches. The host nation is also putting together a very robust tournament for the fans and the teams who will be participating.

While that is going on, the next mundial is being planned and the first step is the identification of the hosts cities, which FIFA has done.The United States will host most of the games, with 60 of the 80 games billed to be played in the tournament taking place in the country. As a matter of fact, all the fixtures from the quarter finals till the final will be hosted in the country. Mexico and Canada will, however, have to make do with the 10 games allocated to them each.

The host cities have been divided in to Western and Eastern zones. Western zone cities include Vancouver (Canada), Seattle (USA), San Francisco (USA), Los Angeles (USA) and Guadalajara (Mexico) while Eastern zone cities are New York (USA), Philadelphia (USA), Boston (USA), Toronto (Canada) and Miami (USA).

2026 World Cup to feature 48 teams for the first time

Like its predecessor in Qatar, the 2026 World Cup will be a World Cup of many firsts. For the first time in the tournament’s history, three countries will collaborate to host the world. This edition of the global showpiece will also be the first to host 48 nations.

This move received lots of criticism and praise from different parts of the footballing globe. Many view this move as an attempt to dilute the sacred feeling of qualifying for the World Cup while others see it as a very welcome development as this opens the competition to more teams hence making the event more competitive and exciting.

The 2026 World Cup will no doubt be hosted by amazing and famous stadiums. The glorious Mexican arena known as the Azteca Stadium will also play host in the 2026 showpiece just as it did in the 1986 mundial in Mexico. However, the Rose Bowl Stadium, one of the host venues for the 1994 tournament in the United States, will not be used in the 2026 edition.

The selection process for the host cities for the 2026 World Cup was far from easy. The organisers put into consideration the quality of stadiums, the financial impact of the cities, development, value of human rights and the general security of the city. Some important cities in these regions missed out due to some of these factors. Some examples are Edmonton (Canada), Cincinnati (USA) and Denver (USA).