According to a report by the Athletic today football's world governing body FIFA is set to confirm a new format for the 2026 World Cup, extending the tournament to 104 games over 39 days.
The new format will be announced at the FIFA Council later this Tuesday in Rwanda’s capital Kigali.
The World Cup which is to be held across Canada, Mexico and the United States in 3 years was already set to be biggest with the revamp, but now it will be the longest tournament in it's history.
It is expected that the new format will not mean the tournament has a bigger overall ‘footprint’ than the 2014 and 2018 tournaments when preparation time is included, but the actual tournament is set to get longer, going up to 38 or 39 days for 2026 compared to 32 in 2018 and 2014.
FIFA is set to approve changes for the 2026 men’s World Cup in North America.
—12 groups of 4 teams (rather than 16 three-team groups)
—104 games (rather than 80)
—Top 2 & the 8 best 3rd-place teams go to R32
—Finalists will play 8 games (up from 7)
—Final: July 19 in the US pic.twitter.com/O5cip4jj34— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 14, 2023
Initially, the plan was to organize the teams into 16 groups of three, where the top two teams would progress to the knockout stage of 32 teams. This proposed format would require 80 games, an increase from the 64-game format that FIFA has employed since 1998.
The new format is for 12 groups of four, with the eight best third-placed teams joining the top two in the knockout rounds. This restores the jeopardy of the final round of group-stage games and reduces the chance of collusion.
However, grouping teams into threes presents two significant drawbacks: it eliminates the thrill of the final round of simultaneous group-stage matches and increases the likelihood of the two teams in the last game conspiring to manipulate the outcome in their favour.
The preparation period for 2026 between a player’s release and his country’s first match looks set to be around two weeks, double what was in place for the winter finals in Qatar last year but shorter than the earlier two summer tournaments.
Argentina won the last World Cup in December after beating France in the final in Qatar.
