Hiram Moreno
With Qatar 2022 less than six months away from starting, the venues for the 2026 World Cup were revealed by FIFA itself, with Mexico, the United States and Canada being the countries in charge of organizing the next great World Cup event in international soccer.
During an official announcement in New York City on Thursday, FIFA revealed the 16 cities and venues that will host matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be:
| Country | Campus | Stadium |
| United States | Arlington, Texas | AT&T Stadium |
| United States | Atlanta Georgia | Mercedes-Benz Stadium |
| United States | East Rutherford, NJ | MetLife Stadium |
| United States | Foxborough, Mass. | Gillette Stadium |
| United States | Houston, Texas | NRG Stadium |
| United States | Inglewood, Calif. | SoFi Stadium |
| United States | Kansas City, Missouri | Arrowhead Stadium |
| United States | Miami Gardens, Florida | Hard Rock Stadium |
| United States | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Lincoln Financial Field |
| United States | Santa Clara, Calif. | Levi’s Stadium |
| United States | Seattle, Washington | Lumen Field |
| Canada | Toronto, Ont. | BMO Field |
| Canada | Vancouver, British Columbia | BC Place |
| Mexico | Guadalajara, Jalisco | Akron Stadium |
| Mexico | Mexico City | Estadio Azteca |
| Mexico | Monterrey, Nuevo Leon | BBVA Stadium |
A vast majority of the games will be played on American soil, as 60 of the 80 matches at the 2026 World Cup will be played in the United States, with Toronto and Mexico hosting 10 games each.
In addition, from the quarterfinal stage onwards it will be played exclusively on American soil, although it is not yet known which stadium will host the final, but MetLife Stadium and SoFi Stadium look like the main favorites to receive the last two teams standing in the competition.
Curious Facts After Choosing Venues for the 2026 World Cup
The main curious fact of this World Cup 2026 is that this will be the first World Cup event to be hosted by three different countries, with South Korea and Japan in 2002 being the only previous occasion that the World Cup was hosted by more than one country.
Additionally, the 2026 World Cup will be the first to be played in a 48-team format, leaving behind the 32-team format that was used from France 1998 to Qatar 2022.
It is also worth mentioning the exclusion of the mythical stadium that hosted the 1994 World Cup final, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. In this way, no venue of the previous World Cup in the United States will host a soccer match in this 2026 World Cup.
Other US cities that applied to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup but ended up being excluded were Baltimore, Cincinnati, Denver, Nashville and Orlando. As for Canada, only Edmonton was left out after submitting itself as a candidate, whereas Mexico had a tremendous success with its three candidate locations.
Another interesting fact is that the Estadio Azteca will become the first stadium in the world to host a match in three different World Cups, which will add even more prestige to the already imposing venue.
