The 2026 World Cup will come to Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America next summer.
A massive 104 games will be played over the five-and-a-half weeks of the tournament, which is loads of football when you think about it. So what’s the format for the competition?
We appreciate that a lot of this will be teaching many of you how to suck eggs, but not everyone is a seasoned football fan, so just pipe down and skip ahead if we’re telling you anything you already know.
How many groups will there be at the 2026 World Cup group stage?
When it was agreed the tournament would expand to 48 teams in 2026, it was originally announced that the group stage would be played in 16 groups of three teams with the top two from each group going through to the knockouts.
After six years of arguments that this could result in sides being more likely to play out mutually convenient results a la 1982’s Disgrace of Gijon (or, more contentiously, Euro 2004’s alleged ‘Scandi stitch-up’).
FIFA subsequently decided instead to stick with four-team groups – 12 of them in total, naturally. However, 32 teams will still go through to the group stage, which makes things a little bit complicated.
Who will play who in the group stage at the 2026 World Cup?
Woah there tiger, we’ve not even finished the qualifying stages yet, so we don’t know.
The draw will be made in December, though, and it will be seeded based on FIFA world rankings, as follows:
- Pot 1: The nine best-ranked qualifying teams, plus the three host nations
- Pot 2: The next best-ranked 12 teams
- Pot 3: The next best-ranked 12 teams after that
- Pot 4: The six lowest-ranked teams, plus the two inter-confederation play-off winners and the four UEFA play-off winners
One team from each pot will go into each group, and each group will be designated with letters from A to L.
Teams from the same confederation (i.e. same continent, more or less) can’t be drawn in the same group, except European sides, of which there must be no more than two in each group.
The three host nations have already been designated their groups to ensure their games all take place in their home country. That means Mexico are in Group A, Canada are in Group B, and the USA are in – you guessed it – group…oh, they’re in group D, for some reason. You didn’t guess it.
Which sides go through from the group stage at the 2026 World Cup?
Those of you who have watched the past three Euros should be able to pick it up fairly quickly, as it’s effectively the same format as those, only twice as large.
For the uninitiated or forgetful, here’s how it works. Everyone in each group plays each other once. The top two sides from each group automatically qualify for the round of 32, i.e. the first knockout stage. That gives us 24 teams.
The remaining slots are filled by the eight best-ranked third-placed teams.
How are the tables calculated in the 2026 World Cup group stage?
It’s the usual three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat, of course.
If two or more sides have the same number of points, the tiebreakers are as follows, in descending order of precedence. (And yes, points 2 and 3 are totally redundant if there’s only two sides involved in the tiebreak process.)
- Most points obtained in head-to-head games between the sides in question
- Goal difference in head-to-head games between the sides in question
- Goals scored in head-to-head games between the sides in question
- Goal difference in ALL group matches
- Goals scored in ALL group matches
- Best disciplinary record (red and yellow cards)
- Most recent FIFA world ranking
- If two or more sides still can’t be separated, then they’ll go back to the previous FIFA world ranking, repeating if necessary until they can be distinguished
How are the best third-placed sides calculated at the 2026 World Cup group stage?
The ranking for the best third-placed sides is slightly different.
FIFA will essentially put all the third-placed sides into a single 12-team league table and rank them on the following criteria, in descending order of precendence
- Most points
- Best goal difference
- Goals scored
- Best disciplinary record (yellow and red cards)
- Most recent FIFA world ranking
- If two or more sides still can’t be separated, then they’ll go back to the previous FIFA world ranking, repeating if necessary until they can be distinguished
For the avoidance of doubt, that does mean it’s possible for a side to finish fourth in their group and go out of the tournament, despite having more points than one or more of the third-placed sides who have progress to the next round (as happened to Ukraine at Euro 2024). And that’s just tough.
How is the draw for the knockout stages at the 2026 World Cup made?
It isn’t, really. The paths all the way from the round of 32 to the final are already mapped out based on 1) who comes where in which group and 2) who comes where in the ranking of the best third-placed teams.
The venues and dates for each knockout game are also already pre-selected; so for instance, the winners from group F will play the runners-up from group C on June 29 in Guadalupe, Mexico.
We’ll spare you the whole bracket because it’s really long and boring and ultimately kind of meaningless at the moment given we don’t know what the groups are, but if for some reason you’re interested in looking at a load of letters, the bracket is on Wikipedia.
But in short, the pre-planned route runs all the way from the Round of 32 to the final.
How many knockout rounds are there at the 2026 World Cup?
Five.
That’s an exceptionally short answer so to fill a gap, here’s the dates and how many games there are in each round:
- Round of 32: 16 games, from June 29 to July 3
- Round of 16: 8 games, from July 5 to July 7
- Quarter-finals: 4 games, from July 9 to July 11
- Semi-finals: 2 games, on July 14 and July 15
- Final: 1 game, on July 19
- (There’s also a third-place play-off on July 18 but nobody cares about that very much.)
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