The 2026 World Cup will begin in Mexico City at the famous Azteca Stadium

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has announced the schedule for the 2026 World Cup. The tournament will take place from June 11 to July 19. Let us remind you that for the first time in history, the world championship will be hosted by three countries at once – the USA, Mexico and Canada. The championship starts at the legendary Azteca Arena in Mexico City and ends at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The International Football Federation has announced the schedule for the 2026 World Cup. The upcoming tournament, in addition to the sports component, is also interesting due to a number of organizational parameters. To begin with, the 2026 World Championship will, for the first time in history, be held in three countries at once – the USA, Mexico and Canada (until now, only one case of a joint tournament has been recorded – in 2002, it was organized by Japan and South Korea). It is also worth noting that Mexico will become the first state in history to host the main football tournament three times: the Latin American country previously hosted the World Cup in 1970 and 1986.

The championship starts at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. It is famous for the fact that it was here that the so-called hand of God happened – the legendary Argentine striker Diego Maradona scored the ball with his hand in the quarter-final confrontation with the British. This ensured that the Argentines advanced to the next round, then they became world champions, and Maradona became a legend. In addition to Maradona’s divinely inspired “hand wave,” Azteca is famous for the fact that it was there that the Brazilian national team, led by the king of football Pele, won the World Cup for the third time in 1970, and also because it hosted two world championship finals.

The 2026 championship starts on June 11. In the opening match, the Mexican national team will play (all host countries of the championship received automatic passes to the final part of the tournament) with an opponent that has not yet decided. Perhaps it would be symbolic to entrust Azteca with hosting the final match (then the Mexican stadium would have scored a hat-trick of games of this level), but, as we know, whoever pays calls the tune. And the main financial burden for holding the tournament fell on the United States, and therefore it is in the American stadium (of the sixteen arenas involved in the tournament, eleven are in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada) that the final match will take place. We are talking about MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which will host the championship championship match on July 19. This is the home arena of two National Football League (NFL, American football) teams – the New York Giants and the New York Jets. It was opened in 2010 and cost modestly for today, considering the capacity of 82 thousand people, $1.6 billion. There is nothing more to say about the stadium.

Be that as it may, the North American World Championship will be historic in any case. And because, as mentioned above, three countries will host it at once, and because 48 teams will compete at once. It should be noted that 16 teams took part in the first World Championship, held in 1934 in Uruguay. In 1982, the number of participants was increased to 24, in 1998 – to 32. We add that 48 teams will be divided into 12 groups of four teams each. The teams that take the first two places in their groups, and eight more teams with the best results from the teams that take third place, will advance to the playoffs.

Alexander Petrov