Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
Over in Qatar, preparations are well underway for the 2022 World Cup with 5 brand new stadiums under construction and 3 being expanded. The 2026 World Cup will be hosted in 3 countries with Canada, USA and Mexico sharing the rights. Whilst It may be another 7 years away, bookies are already preparing for the event with sites such as www.bestusacasinosites.com already offering odds on favourites France, Germany and Brazil winning the tournament.
The 2026 event will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup and will feature a number of firsts. It will see the first ever World Cup finals game being hosted in Canada and will also be expanded from 32 teams to 46. Along with 1970 and 1986, this will be the 3rd World Cup to be hosted in Mexico - making it the first nation to host World Cup Finals matches at 3 different World Cups. It will be the US' second time hosting a World Cup, after the 1994 finals which were won by Brazil who beat Italy in a penalty shoot out.
It will also be the first ever World Cup to be hosted in 3 different countries. 40 of the 60 matches will take place in the USA with Canada and Mexico getting 10 games each. Every match from the Quarter Finals onwards will be held in the USA.
The expansion to 48 teams will see a change in format. Out will go the tradition groups of 4 teams, to be replaced with 16 groups consisting of 3 teams each. Nations will play each other group members once, with the top 2 teams going through to a knockout tournament of 32 teams, then 16 teams and then the usual route of Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and the Final.
Matches will be played in 16 of the continent's biggest cities including New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City. The USA's relatively small soccer specific stadiums mean that a lot of games will be played in larger NFL stadiums such as Levi's Stadium (San Francisco), MetLife Stadium (New York) and M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore).
The joint 3 country bid fraught off competition from Morocco who wanted to bring the event to Africa for the first time since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Had Morocco been successful, bets online would have would have been placed rumouring which annoying instrument would replace the famous vuvuzela!
Unusually for a major tournament, no new stadiums will be built - all 12 venues are already in use. The complete list of stadiums can be found below:
| Stadium | Location | Tournament capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Olympic Stadium | Montreal, Canada | 55,822 |
| Commonwealth Stadium | Edmonton, Canada | 56,418 |
| BMO Field | Toronto, Canada | 45,500 |
| Estadio Azteca | Mexico City, Mexico | 87,523 |
| Estadio BBVA Bancomer | Monterrey, Mexico | 53,500 |
| Estadio Akron | Guadalajara, Mexico | 48,071 |
| Rose Bowl | Los Angeles, California, USA | 88,432 |
| MetLife Stadium | New York City, USA | 88,432 |
| FedExField | Washington, D.C., USA | 70,249 |
| AT&T Stadium | Dallas, Texas, USA | 92,967 |
| Arrowhead Stadium | Kansas City, Kansas, USA | 76,640 |
| Empower Field at Mile High | Denver, Colorado, USA | 77,595 |
| NRG Stadium | Houston, Texas, USA | 72,220 |
| M&T Bank Stadium | Baltimore, Maryland,USA | 70,976 |
| Mercedes-Benz Stadium | Atlanta, Georgia, USA | 75,500 |
| Lincoln Financial Field | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA | 69,328 |
| Nissan Stadium | Nashville, Tennessee, USA | 69,722 |
| CenturyLink Field | Seattle, Washinton, USA | 69,000 |
| Levi's Stadium | San Francisco, California, USA | 70,909 |
| Gillette Stadium | Boston, Massachusetts, USA | 70,000 |
| Paul Brown Stadium | Cincinnati, Ohio, USA | 67,402 |
| Hard Rock Stadium | Miami, Florida, USA | 67,518 |
| Citrus Bowl | Orlando, Florida, USA | 65,000 |
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