FIFA World Cup to be hosted by 3 countries for 1st time
US, Canada, and Mexico to jointly host World Cup across a wide geographical area on 4 time zones, marking 1st time in history that tournament has been jointly hosted by 3 countries
Fatih Erel
05 June 2026•Update: 05 June 2026
ISTANBUL
The FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by three countries—the US, Canada, and Mexico—across a wide geographical area for the first time in history.
The World Cup, which began in Uruguay in 1930, has been held 22 times. However, for the first time in history, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be held in three countries, with 48 teams competing.
Hosted by the US, Mexico, and Canada, the tournament will begin with the opening match between Mexico and South Africa at Mexico City Stadium on Thursday, June 11, and will conclude with the final at New Jersey Stadium in New York on Sunday, July 19, after six weeks of excitement.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will feature 104 matches in 16 different stadiums spread across four time zones. The US will host 78 of these matches.
The largest of the 16 stadiums is Dallas Stadium with a capacity of 94,000, while the smallest is in Toronto with a capacity of 45,000.
2 countries once hosted FIFA World Cup
Twenty-one of the previous 22 FIFA World Cups have been hosted by a single country, except the 2002 tournament, which was jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea.
The tournament, which was also the first and only World Cup jointly hosted by the two countries, marked the first time Asia hosted the mega event.
Brazil won the 2002 World Cup, defeating Germany 2-0 in the final. Türkiye finished third in the 2002 World Cup after defeating South Korea, one of the host nations.
