The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will take place from June 11 to July 19, 2026. It will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries; the main host country of matches is the United States, while Canada and Mexico will be the auxiliary hosts. The tournament will be the first to be hosted by three nations.

This tournament will be the first to include 48 teams, expanded from 32. The United 2026 bid beat a rival bid by Morocco during a final vote at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow. It will be the first World Cup since 2002 to be hosted by more than one nation. With its past hosting of the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, Mexico will become the first country to host or co-host the men's World Cup three times. The United States last hosted the men's World Cup in 1994, whereas it will be Canada's first time hosting or co-hosting the men's tournament. The event will also return to its traditional northern summer schedule after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was held in November and December.

As the host nations, Canada, Mexico, and the United States all automatically qualified. Of the 13 teams that have qualified to date, 10 had also appeared in the 2022 edition, while Jordan and Uzbekistan will make their World Cup debuts. Argentina is the defending champion, having won its third title in 2022.

### Format and expansion

The general idea of expanding the tournament had been suggested as early as 2013 by then-UEFA president Michel Platini, and also in 2016 by FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Opponents of the proposal argued that the number of games played was already at an unacceptable level, that the expansion would dilute the quality of the games, and that the decision was driven by political rather than sporting concerns, accusing Infantino of using the promise of bringing more countries to the World Cup to win his election.

Starting with this edition, the FIFA World Cup expanded to 48 teams, an increase of 16 from the previous 7 tournaments. The teams will be split into 12 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 of each group and the 8 best third-placed teams progressing to a new round of 32, as approved by the FIFA Council on March 14, 2023. This is set to be the first expansion and format change since 1998. 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. The tournament will last 39 days, an increase from 32 days of the 2014 and 2018 tournaments. Each team will still play three group matches. The final matchday at club level for players named in the final squads is May 24, 2026; clubs have to release their players by May 25, with exceptions granted to players participating in continental club competition finals up until May 30. The 56 days of the combined rest, release, and tournament periods remains identical to the 2010, 2014 and 2018 tournaments.

### Previous Expansion Format

The expansion to 48 teams had already been approved on January 10, 2017, when it was decided that the tournament would include 16 groups of 3 teams, and 80 matches in total, with the top two teams of each group progressing to a round of 32. Under this later-superseded format, the maximum number of games per team would have remained at seven, but each team would have played one fewer group match than before. The tournament still would have been completed within 32 days. The later-superseded format was chosen over three other proposals, ranging from 40 to 48 teams, from 76 to 88 matches, and from one to four minimum matches per team.

### Host Selection

Main articles: United 2026 FIFA World Cup bid and Morocco 2026 FIFA World Cup bid

The FIFA Council went back and forth between 2013 and 2017 on limitations within hosting rotation based on the continental confederations. Originally, it was set that bids to be host would not be allowed from countries belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments. It was temporarily changed to only prohibit countries belonging to the confederation that hosted the previous World Cup from bidding to host the following tournament, before the rule was changed back to its prior state of two World Cups. The FIFA Council made an exception to potentially grant eligibility to member associations of the confederation of the second-to-last host of the FIFA World Cup in the event that none of the received bids fulfill the strict technical and financial requirements. In March 2017, FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed that "Europe (UEFA) and Asia (AFC) are excluded from the bidding following the selection of Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 respectively." Therefore, the 2026 World Cup could be hosted by one of the remaining four confederations: CONCACAF (North America; last hosted in 1994), CAF (Africa; last hosted in 2010), CONMEBOL (South America; last hosted in 2014), or OFC (Oceania, never hosted before), or potentially by UEFA in case no bid from those four met the requirements.

Critics of the later-superseded format argued that the use of three-team groups with two teams progressing significantly increased the risk of collusion between teams. This prompted FIFA to suggest that penalty shoot-outs may be used to prevent draws in the group stage, although even then some risk of collusion would remain, and a possibility would emerge of teams deliberately losing shootouts to eliminate a rival. To address these concerns, FIFA continued considering alternative formats – a process that ended with the 2023 announcement that the format would be 12 groups of 4 teams.

Co-hosting the FIFA World Cup—which had been banned by FIFA after the 2002 World Cup—was approved for the 2026 World Cup, though not limited to a specific number but instead evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Also for 2026, the FIFA general secretariat, after consultation with the Competitions Committee, had the power to exclude bidders who did not meet the minimum technical requirements to host the competition. Canada, Mexico, and the United States had all publicly considered bidding for the tournament separately, but the United joint bid was announced on April 10, 2017. In March 2022, Liga MX president Mikel Arriola claimed Mexico's involvement as cohost could have been at risk if the league and the federation had not responded quickly to the Querétaro–Atlas riot between rival fans that left 26 spectators injured and resulted in 14 arrests. Arriola said FIFA was "shocked" by the incident but Infantino was satisfied with the sanctions handed down against Querétaro.