The NEW 2026 World Cup Format EXPLAINED!

The 2026 World Cup that will be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada has expanded to 48 nations and will have a new and revised format, let us explain it to you.

Time Stamps:

0:00 The 2026 World Cup Format and Qualifiers
0:52 World Cup format changes throughout history all the way till 2026
3:46 How many spots does each confederation get for the 2026 World Cup?
5:55 The old format of the 2026 World Cup.
9:05 The new format of the 2026 World Cup

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[TacticalManager]

The revised format that I go through has been confirmed by FIFA, just now!!!!

Right on time.

[walterishere]

I'm old enough to remember World Cup '94. The 12 teams of 4 feels like a reversion to the 6 groups of 4 of those days and the look at the third place tables wondering who might qualify as best 3rd placed.

I remembered loving the expansion to 32 teams. The final group match drama is something that won't be as well replicated in the 48 team format unless the World Cup gets expanded again to 64. The moving of some of the drama to the third place table is going to take away some of that final group matches excitement.


That said, I think the 12 groups of four is a much better format than 16 groups of three and I hope that is the final decided format in the 48 team edition.

[bradschneider]

New Zealand will make the 2026 world cup. Honestly what a time to be alive

[wouldbfarmer]

12 groups of 4. Take top two teams from each group for a knockout round of 24 teams, whereas 8 teams with the best points get a one game bye while the remaining 16 play each other, and the winners play the previously idle 8 teams. That way to qualify for the knockout round, a team is only compared to its own group. The teams getting the byes would be compared to other groups, but hey, it ain't gonna be perfect.

[franciscobuenrostro]

I much prefer this format to the one originally proposed back in 2018. Groups of 3 teams aren’t as exciting

[alfrediceman]

hey I always will remember Austria and Germany getting the score that got them both through at the expense of Algeria and Chile in Spain '82... and seeing fans waving money implying a fix ... and seeing that after about eleven minutes neither team really seemed to be trying to score another goal

[vaevictis_]

The pictures used were perfect for each topic 👍

[supermetanix]

My format suggestion: Keep the 12 groups of 4, and the 8 best 3rd-place teams. However, have the third place teams decided based on how close they are to 2nd place in their respective group.

For example, say that team 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are all in different groups.
Say that all these teams placed third in their group. teams 1-8 are 2 points away from 2nd place, but teams 9-12 are 4 points away from 2nd place. That means teams 1-8 qualify for the knockout stage.

Tiebreakers (such as goal difference) work the same way as regular group stage tiebreakers, but the value is determined by the goal difference compared to second place.

For example, say that 2 teams (team A and B) are in third place of different groups. team 1 is second place in team A's group, and team 2 is second place in team B's group.
Here is a visualization:

Group X
1. Random Team
2. Team 1 (5 points) (Goal Difference: +2)
3. Team A (3 points) (Goal Difference: 0)
4. Random Team

Group Y
1. Random Team
2. Team 2 (3 points) (Goal Difference: +1)
3. Team B (1 point) (Goal Difference: 0)
4. Random Team

Even though teams A and B have the same goal difference, team B has a closer goal difference to 2nd place of their group. Therefore, team B would advance.

After the group stage, it would go into the round of 32 knockout stage.

[Martin-fkog]

If they are gonna rename the stadium for the games they should name it "New Jersey New York" stadium. New Jersy is it's own state and the stadium is in N.J.!!!

[MrLewis-lkus]

I like 12 groups of 4. On June 25, 1982 in Spain, Germany and Austria stroked each other the entire 2nd half of their final group match after Germany went up 1-0 in the opening half, putting both teams through to the elimination round, screwing over Algeria. It was a shameful World Cup moment. Since then, Game 3 group games have been played simultaneously.

[mugiwarajesse]

"your country will not be in the world cup" not my born country and blood country being the host of the world cup

[urfanmohammed]

12 groups of four all day long. I means no team is mathematically out after two games. which means theres plenty to play for even if you lose your first two games. I remember this format from the 86, 90 and 94 world cups and missed it when they moved to the 32 game format.

[luniz]

the good thing about the bottom spots being "play in" spots is that even if they're not great, at least they'll have some momentum

[doktarr]

With groups of 3, you need to add another knock out round. Group winners advance directly to the round of 32, while 2nd place teams play 3rd place from another group for the other 16 spots.

Advantages:
1) Gives real stakes to winning your group (get a rest week instead of an elimination game) so final round match fixing becomes less likely
2) every team still gets 3 games minimum
3) every team is on the field when they are eliminated. You have to lose to get knocked out.
4) Group winners play the same number of games that they did in 2022, just replacing one group game with a knockout game.
5) Unlike the new format, there's no semi meaningless cross group comparisons that are largely decided by running up the score on bad teams

[moloko]

Seed the teams and the group winners of the groups featuring the top 8 teams advance to the round of 16 directly. The remaining four group winners and the second place teams play in the round of 32 with the winners advancing to play the already placed teams. No 3rd place teams will advance and the likely winner of the World Cup - assuming they are a top 8 ranked team and win their group would only have to play 7 games to win.

[jpdutoit]

Here's my format suggestion. Keep it at 16 groups of 3, but each team plays their matches against a different group. Group A vs Group B, Group C vs Group D etc. Each team still plays 3 group matches and the final round of fixtures can still be played simultaneously. (There would than be 3 simultaneous games instead of 2) The top 2 in each group play each other in the R/O 32 etc.

[echo]

The World Cups from 1986-94 featured 24 teams in 6 groups of 4.The top two from each group plus the four best 3rd-placed teams from the six groups qualified for the Last 16 knockout stage.

The 2026 tournament will be twice the size of 1986-94, with 12 groups (instead of 6) of four teams plus the eight (compared to 4) best 3rd-placed teams qualifying for the knockout stage. (Last 32, instead of Last 16).

[Abdullah-mon]

Honestly the 8 3rd place teams qualifying is fine with me whether it’s a easy group or not because it gives underdogs a chance to shine

[ivanpetrov]

I can give a real example of match fixing in the World Cup. Germany-Austria screwed Algeria in 1982.

[matusmajernik]

Thank you very much, I finally understand the format of ms 2026, now I realize that it will be a great 48 teams, I can hope that whether it will be my country Slovakia or our brother country Czech Republic, besides I will watch night after night