MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FIFA announces venues for 2026 World Cup

It will be the first time three countries co-host a World Cup

World football's governing body FIFA Thursday announced the venues for the 2026 World Cup finals to be co-hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

This year's event to be staged in Qatar will be the last time 32 teams will be participating. Starting in 2026, 48 teams will compete for the global trophy.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first to be held across three different countries. In 2002, Japan and South Korea co-hosted the event. It was the only occasion when the tournament was played in more than one country.

For the 2026 event, 11 cities in the United States (Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, and New York), three in Mexico (Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City), and two in Canada (Vancouver, and Toronto) have been selected by FIFA.

Meanwhile, officials from the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) insisted on hosting the 2030 World Cup in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile.

After the 2026 World Cup venues were confirmed, CONMEBOL President Alejandro Domínguez insisted on social media that the South American countries were interested in organizing the event marking the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup (Uruguay 1930).

“We continue to work for the candidacy of Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Argentina to host the 2030 World Cup. As the World Cup turns 100 years old, it must return to its original home, South America,” wrote Domínguez.

“Our objective is to relaunch the intention of the four governments to organize the 2030 World Cup, post-Pandemic,” said Paraguay's Vice-President Hugo Velázquez, after chairing a meeting of representatives of the four countries in Asunción.

He added that in less than a month a task force will be formed in Montevideo to establish a calendar to promote the joint bid.

Velázquez admitted that the four South American countries would not be able to compete economically with the world powers and that the idea was “to make history, above all for what football represents in this part of the continent.”

”We want to remind them that the first World Cup was played in South America (Uruguay 1930); ours is the continent that exports the best footballers in the world,” Velázquez stressed.

FIFA will make its decision in 2024. Also interested in co-hosting the 2030 World Cup finals are Spain and Portugal.