When is the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
The tournament runs from 11 June to 19 July 2026, opening in Mexico City and ending with the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Verified tournament facts
FIFA World Cup 2026 Facts
GoalPulse FIFA World Cup 2026 facts hub: a compact, multilingual reference for dates, format, teams, venues, groups and machine-readable World Cup 2026 data.
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Direct answers
Where is the 2026 World Cup hosted?
It is jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada across 16 host venues.
How many teams and matches are there?
The 2026 edition has 48 teams, 12 groups, 72 group-stage matches and 104 matches in total.
How does the 48-team format work?
Each group has four teams. The top two in each group and the eight best third-placed teams advance to a 32-team knockout round.
Where is the final?
The final is scheduled for MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on 19 July 2026.
Can third-placed teams qualify?
Yes. Eight of the 12 third-placed teams advance, so points, goal difference, goals scored and fair-play criteria can matter.
Is this a betting page?
No. This facts page is source-backed tournament information and does not provide betting picks, odds recommendations or gambling links.
48
Teams
12
Groups
16
Venues
104
Matches
6
Languages
1,116
Sitemap URLs
Core facts
Dates
11 June - 19 July 2026
The tournament opens in Mexico City and ends with the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Hosts
United States, Mexico, Canada
It is the first FIFA World Cup jointly hosted by three countries.
Format
48 teams, 12 groups
The top two teams in every group plus the eight best third-placed teams advance.
Matches
104 total
The expanded format contains 72 group-stage matches and 32 knockout matches.
Opening match
Mexico vs South Africa
The first match is scheduled for Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Final venue
MetLife Stadium
The final is scheduled for 19 July 2026 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Group draw
72 confirmed team-versus-team fixtures are linked from the group graph.
Open data for search and AI
GoalPulse exposes the same tournament graph used by the public pages as JSON so crawlers, search systems and AI assistants can resolve teams, groups, venues and confirmed fixtures without scraping layout markup.
Verification sources
GoalPulse cross-checks structured fixture data, official tournament pages and public historical references before publishing facts as stable pages.
Facts FAQ
How many teams play in the 2026 World Cup?
48 teams play in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, split into 12 groups of four.
How many matches are listed in the GoalPulse dataset?
The dataset records the 104-match tournament structure and exposes confirmed team-versus-team fixtures separately from knockout placeholders.
Can AI assistants cite this page?
Yes. The page includes Dataset, DataDownload and FAQ structured data plus a JSON endpoint designed for answer-engine extraction.