The stages are now officially set for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
On Sunday, FIFA revealed the official match schedule for the 2026 World Cup tournament, to be played across sixteen different venues in the three host countries.
BMO Field in Toronto will host the first-ever FIFA World Cup match to be played on Canadian soil on Friday, June 12, 2026, involving the Canadian men’s national team. Canada’s remaining two group-stage matches will be played in Vancouver at BC Place on June 18 and June 24.
Both Toronto and Vancouver will host five group-stage matches each, as well as a round of 32 match under the new format. Vancouver, meanwhile, will also host a match in the round of 16.
Canada, Mexico and the United States have been given automatic spots in the competition and will be joined by 45 other nations as the tournament expands to include 48 teams for the first time. It will include an unprecedented 104 matches between June 11 and July 19.
FIFA revealed the new format that will encompass all of these additional teams. The competition will open with twelve groups of four teams each. The top two sides from each group, plus the eight best third-place finishers, will advance to the knockout stage, which will begin with a round of 32, the first of five playoff matches it takes to reach the final.
The opening match of the 2026 World Cup will be held on June 11 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, featuring the Mexican national team. Mexico and the Azteca previously hosted the tournament in 1970 and 1986, the latter of which being the first time Canada qualified for the competition.
The final, meanwhile, will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19. The United States men’s national team will open their competition on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The USMNT will also play a group stage match at Lumen Field in Seattle. The United States also hosted the tournament in 1994.
The remaining matches will be played in Monterrey and Guadalajara in Mexico as well as Atlanta, Dallas, Foxborough, Houston, Inglewood, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia and Santa Clara in the United States.