The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the twenty third FIFA World Cup tournament and will be held in Canada, Mexico and USA from 11 June to 19 July, 2026. It will be the first World Cup hosted by three nations and the second FIFA World Cup to be hosted in North America.
This tournament will be the first to include 48 teams, expanded from 32.
The bidding process was due to start in 2015, with the appointment of hosts scheduled for the FIFA Congress on 10 May 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but was postponed due to the 2015 FIFA corruption case and the subsequent resignation of Sepp Blatter.
Two bids to host the event were submitted to FIFA, a joint bid by Canada, Mexico and the United States, and one by Morocco. On 13 June 2018, at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow, Russia the joint bid was selected by 134 votes to Morocco's 65.
206 FIFA nations applied to enter the qualifying process, Russia were suspended indefinitely on 28 February 2022 from participating in UEFA and FIFA competitions due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.
Eritrea withdrew from the qualifying campaign following the draw for the CAF qualifiers.
Hosts, Canada, Mexico and USA qualify automatically whilst the remaining 45 places, have been allocated with 16 to Europe (UEFA), five to South America (CONMEBOL), one to the North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF), eight to Africa (CAF) and seven to Asia (AFC) whilst one qualifier from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and one each from CONMEBOL, CAF and the AFC as well as two from CONCACAF will be drawn into an interconfederation play off for the final two places.
Fifty four UEFA members entered the European qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Russia suspended from participating in UEFA and FIFA competitions due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.
Wales are placed in Pot 2 as second seeds.
