Category World News

The 23rd FIFA World Cup draws ever closer with organisers promising the largest global showcase of football ever.

With just six months until kickoff, many tournament milestones have already been reached: Forty-two of the 48-team teams have qualified, the competition draw is completed, two-million-plus tickets have been sold and the 16 cities – 11 in the United States, three in Mexico, and two in Canada – have now been confirmed and are making final preparations to their stadiums and surrounding infrastructure.

Now, Al Jazeera Sport lays out all to know in advance of the 2026 edition of the world’s marquee football tournament.

When and where is the FIFA World Cup 2026?

The tournament is being staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and will begin in Mexico City on June 11.

Due to the expansion of the tournament – from 32 teams to 48 – the 39-day event is the longest in its history.

Where will the FIFA World Cup 2026 final be held?

The US will stage the final, which will be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

How will the FIFA World Cup 2026 game staging be split between the hosts?

The US will stage games in 11 places: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey/New York (joint host region), Philadelphia, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Canada will host 13 games in total, split between Toronto and Vancouver. Mexico will also get 13 games, which will be played in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey.

Which stadiums have still to be built?

All the stadiums for the World Cup are already in place, although two are having upgrades for the tournament.

The Boston Stadium, with a 63,815-capacity, is home to the NFL’s New England Patriots and the MLS’s New England Revolution, and is undergoing a $225m refurbishment.

Toronto Stadium in Canada is also having an upgrade, but on a much more modest level. The home to MLS side Toronto FC and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts holds 44,315 spectators, and that is being expanded to more than 45,000 as part of its redevelopment.

Who are the defending FIFA World Cup champions?

Argentina won the last edition of the FIFA World Cup, beating France in the final of Qatar 2022.

With the game level at 3-3 after extra time, Argentina won the penalty shootout 4-2.

Which teams are the favourites to win World Cup 2026?

Euro 2024 winners Spain are ranked first by FIFA before the tournament. Argentina, the reigning World Cup champions from Qatar 2022, are also considered a frontrunner for the title.

The FIFA World Cup 2018 winners – and 2022 runners-up – France, led by star striker Kylian Mbappe, are also a top contender for the crown.

Brazil, Portugal, England, Netherlands, Germany, Colombia, Croatia, Morocco and Mexico are in the second tier of strong contenders, based on their FIFA rankings from four to 15.

Highly talented nations, who also have a puncher’s chance of winning it all, if everything went their way, include Norway, Uruguay and Egypt.

Will Messi and Ronaldo play at the FIFA World Cup 2026?

Yes. Messi will lineup with Argentina in defence of their crown, while Ronaldo will play for UEFA Nations League champions, Portugal. At 38 and 40 years of age, respectively, it is widely expected that this will be the last World Cup that the iconic pair play at.

When will we know all the teams for the FIFA World Cup 2026?

Forty-two of the 48 teams have already qualified, with a series of options still available for the final six teams.

FIFA’s intercontinental playoffs will be the absolute last chance saloon for nations to reach next year’s event. The finale of that route will be on March 31, 2026, less than three months before the World Cup kicks off.

The European qualification process runs until March, but most of the remaining confederations will have finished their continental qualification processes long before then.

What are the FIFA intercontinental playoffs?

Once the respective confederations finish their qualification process, FIFA offers two final spots to be contested by the best-placed team from each of the six continental routes that have not already qualified.

What will the format be for the FIFA World Cup 2026?

With the expansion to 48 teams, the World Cup will now feature 12 four-team groups. That will lead to a round of 32, an extra knockout round compared with previous editions.

Indeed, the tournament has doubled in size since it was staged in the US in 1994, when only 24 teams competed.

What were the World Cup 2026 groups drawn on December 5?

The groups are mostly completed following the draw, but for the six final slots, although the potential teams that can fill those places are now also known:

• Group A: Mexico, South Korea, South Africa, plus one of Denmark, Macedonia, Czech Republic or Ireland
• Group B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar, plus one of Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales or Bosnia
• Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, Haiti
• Group D: USA, Australia, Paraguay, plus one of Turkiye, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo
• Group E: Germany, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Curacao
• Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, plus one of Ukraine, Sweden, Poland and Albania
• Group G: Belgium, Iran, Egypt, New Zealand
• Group H: Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde
• Group I: France, Senegal, Norway, plus one of Iraq, Bolivia or Suriname
• Group J: Argentina, Austria, Algeria, Jordan
• Group K: Portugal, Colombia, Uzbekistan, plus one of DRC, Jamaica or New Caledonia
• Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana

Can Trump move games at the FIFA World Cup 2026?

Trump has been quite clear and consistent on the staging of games within the US, saying he will move the games from any cities that he deems to be unsafe.

On September 26, when Trump was asked about games being moved, he warned, “Well, that’s an interesting question … but we’re going to make sure they’re safe. [Seattle and San Francisco are] run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing.”

Will the weather affect games at the FIFA World Cup 2026?

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup was staged in the US, and the heat and resulting thunderstorms proved to be a huge problem for the tournament.

Three stadiums – in Arlington, Atlanta, and Houston – have retractable roofs that are expected to be closed due to the summer heat, while Inglewood and Vancouver have fixed roofs.

What are the ticket ballot options for the FIFA World Cup 2026?

More than two million tickets have already been sold for the tournament, but the main ticket ballot only opens on Thursday.

It will give fans their first opportunity to buy tickets since the full match schedule was announced last week, following the draw for the group stages.

The ballet will open at 16:00 GMT on Thursday, on FIFA’s website, and will run until 13 January 2026. Thereafter, FIFA will run a lottery to decide which applications are successful.

What are the exact pathways for the six remaining FIFA World Cup 2026 slots?

Intercontinental playoffs: Six teams will take part in the playoffs in Mexico in March, with two qualifying.

Seeded teams Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will receive byes to play in the two playoff finals, awaiting the winners from the semifinals.

• Semifinal 1: New Caledonia vs Jamaica
• Final 1: DRC vs New Caledonia or Jamaica
• Semifinal 2: Bolivia vs Suriname
• Final 2: Iraq vs Bolivia or Suriname

Europe: UEFA’s playoff competition, also taking place in March, will feature 16 teams, who need to win their semifinal and final to become one of four to qualify.

The draw is as follows:

Path A

• Semifinal 1: Italy vs Northern Ireland
• Semifinal 2: Wales vs Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Final 1: Winner of Wales vs Bosnia-Herzegovina at home vs Italy or Northern Ireland

Path B

• Semifinal 3: Ukraine vs Sweden
• Semifinal 4: Poland vs Albania
• Final 2: Winner of Ukraine vs Sweden at home vs Poland or Albania

Path C

• Semifinal 5: Turkiye vs Romania
• Semifinal 6: Slovakia vs Kosovo
• Final 3: Winner of Slovakia vs Kosovo at home vs Turkiye vs Romania

Path D

• Semifinal 7: Denmark vs North Macedonia
• Semifinal 8: Czech Republic vs Republic of Ireland
• Final 4: Winner of Czech Republic vs Republic of Ireland at home vs Denmark or North Macedonia

Which nation will top each group? 🧐@aramco | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/aPr4FD2mDB

Thousands of displaced people in Gaza are battling flooding which has swept through their tents and temporary shelters. Storm Byron brought torrential rain to the enclave, swamping camps in mud and vast pools of water. Tareq abu Azzoum sent this report from a camp in al-Mawasi.

Fault Lines travels to Iran to investigate the human cost of Israel’s attacks and the risk of another war.

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado has declared that authorities in her home country would have attempted everything possible to prevent her journey to Norway, after she emerged publicly for the first time in nearly a year.

Machado greeted supporters from an Oslo hotel balcony in the early hours of Thursday following a high-risk exit from Venezuela, where she had been in hiding since January.

The journey, which purportedly included navigating 10 military checkpoints and crossing the Caribbean by fishing vessel, brought her to the Norwegian capital to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.

During a news conference at Norway’s parliament, the 58-year-old right-wing opposition figure delivered sharp criticism of President Nicolas Maduro’s administration, asserting that the government deploys national resources to suppress its population.

When questioned about an oil tanker seized by Washington on Wednesday, she argued this demonstrated how the regime operates. Asked whether she would support a United States invasion, Machado claimed Venezuela had already been invaded by Russian and Iranian agents alongside drug cartels.

“This has turned Venezuela into the criminal hub of the Americas,” she said, standing alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

“What sustains the regime is a very powerful and strongly funded repression system. Where do those funds come from? Well, from drug trafficking, from the black market of oil, from arms trafficking and from human trafficking. We need to cut those flows.”

The trip reunited her with family members she had not seen in almost two years, including her daughter, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf at Wednesday’s ceremony.

Aligned with Trump 

The political leader has welcomed international sanctions and US military intervention in Venezuela, a move her critics say harkens back to a dark past.

The US has a long history of interference in the region, particularly in the 1980s, when it propped up repressive right-wing governments through coups, and funded paramilitary groups across Latin America that were responsible for mass killings, forced disappearances and other grave human rights abuses.

Venezuelan authorities cited Machado’s support for sanctions and US intervention when they barred her from running for office in last year’s presidential election, where she had intended to challenge Maduro. Machado has accused Venezuela’s president of stealing the July 2024 election, which was criticised by international observers.

Praising the Trump administration’s approach, Machado said the president’s actions had been “decisive to reach the point where we are right now, in which the regime is weaker than ever.”

She insisted she would return home but did not say when. “I’m going back to Venezuela regardless of when Maduro goes out. He’s going out, but the moment will be determined by when I’m finished doing the things that I came out to do,” she told reporters.

Her escape comes as tensions between Washington and Caracas have intensified sharply. The Trump administration has positioned major naval forces in the Caribbean and conducted strikes against alleged drug vessels since September. The US seized what Trump called a “very large” oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, on Wednesday.

Machado has aligned herself with right-wing hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to US national security, despite doubts raised by the US intelligence community.

The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America’s Pacific coast, killing more than 80 people.

Human rights groups, some US Democrats, and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Machado’s two-month escape operation involved wearing a disguise and departing from a coastal fishing village on a wooden boat bound for Curacao before boarding a private aircraft to Norway.

US forces were alerted to avoid striking the vessel, the WSJ reported, as they had one with similar boats in recent months. Machado confirmed receiving assistance from Washington during her escape.

Maduro, in power since 2013 following the death of Hugo Chavez, says Trump is pushing for regime change in the country to access Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. He has pledged to resist such attempts.

A United Nations report released on Thursday accused Venezuela’s security forces of crimes against humanity over more than a decade.