Who will host the 2024 World Cup?

FIFA lays out its blueprint for a sprawling 2026 World Cup.

FIFA on Thursday began unveiling its plans for a sprawling, three-nation men’s World Cup in 2026 by announcing the host cities for soccer’s biggest-ever championship. The tournament, to be hosted jointly by the United States, Mexico and Canada, will be the first to have 48 teams, an increase from the current 32, and take place in cities throughout North America.

“This part of the world doesn’t realize what will happen here in 2026,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said at a news conference in Manhattan after the televised announcement.

The choices, 16 cities selected from a list of 22 finalists, were revealed in three regional groupings, blocs representing the East, Central and West regions.

The winning bidders included legendary soccer venues like Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, which has hosted two World Cup finals, but also metropolitan areas with previous World Cup hosting experience like Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, and Guadalajara, Mexico as well as newcomers like Toronto, Philadelphia, Miami and Seattle.

The final groupings offered a hint of how the tournament may play out, with teams scattered regionally in an effort to limit cross-country travel for teams and fans, at least in the early stages:

EAST: Toronto (BMO Field); Boston (Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass.); Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field); Miami (Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.); and New York/New Jersey (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.).

CENTRAL: Kansas City, Mo. (Arrowhead Stadium); Dallas (AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas); Atlanta (Mercedes Benz Stadium); Houston (NRG Stadium); Monterrey, Mexico (Estadio BBVA, Guadalupe); Mexico City (Estadio Azteca).

WEST: Vancouver (BC Place); Seattle (Lumen Field); San Francisco (Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif.); Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, Calif.); and Guadalajara, Mexico (Estadio Akron, Zapopan).

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. — which hosted the final in 1994, the only other time the World Cup was held in the United States — was left out. But so was a combined bid representing Baltimore and Washington, D.C., meaning the United States’ capital will not play a role in the nation’s biggest sporting event in 2026.

“This was a very difficult choice,” said Colin Smith, FIFA’s chief tournaments and events officer. “You can’t imagine a World Cup coming to the U.S. and the capital city not taking a major role as well.” (Infantino said a fan fest will be held on the National Mall in Washington.)

The bulk of the World Cup’s 80 games will be played in the United States, following an agreement made by the three host countries’ federations when they bid to stage the tournament in 2017 and confirmation by FIFA’s choices. Of the 16 cities chosen, 11 were in the United States, three in Mexico and two — Vancouver and Toronto — in Canada. Mexico will become the first country to host the World Cup three times, while Canada will be doing so for the first time. The United States previously hosted the World Cup in 1994, a 24-team tournament that still holds the event’s attendance record even after its expansion to its present 32 teams. The 48-team event in 2026, held in a series of gigantic stadiums, will smash that mark.

Infantino said some of the last decisions on host cities were not made until Thursday. But there are still many choices left to make, such as organizing the schedule of games, assigning which cities will host the most important games, including the opening match and the final, and figuring out how to reduce travel and how to avoid the worst of the summer heat in cities where the stadium has no roof.

“In such a big region like North America, we need to care about that in particular, to make sure that teams are playing in clusters that the fans don’t have to travel crazy distances and the teams as well,” Infantino said. “When we look at that, we have to take into account the weather conditions, the stadiums, those who have a roof and those who are closed and maybe can play earlier in the afternoon and those where you have to play in the evening.”

Victor Montagliani, the president of Concacaf, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, said the process for deciding which city will host the World Cup final — and also marquee matches like the opener or those in the knockout stage — has not begun. He said the capacity of the stadium for the final will be the primary factor of many.

Asked about specific sites, such as Mexico City or the New York region, as hosts for the final, Infantino was coy. He joked, “New York is definitely a candidate, and so are the 15 other cities as well.”

Because many of the stadiums selected were built for N.F.L. teams, they have large capacities. But in order to accommodate a wider soccer field in a narrower space designed for football, Smith said some seats will have to be removed in certain “pinch points” of some stadiums. But he insisted it “doesn’t have any material impact on the capacity.” All the games will be played on grass fields, installed at the cost of tens of millions of dollars and scheduled to be in place at each stadium weeks before the tournament opens.

June 16, 2022, 6:00 p.m. ET

James Wagner

Asked when and where the 2026 World Cup final will be held, Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, demurred and said, “We will take our time with the decision.” Officials from the joint New York/New Jersey bid had a feeling they would be one of the 16 cities selected, and they are already prepared to push for the right to host the final. Read more here.

June 16, 2022, 5:49 p.m. ET

James Wagner

Interesting: Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, said some of the last decisions on host cities were not made until Thursday. The decisions, he said, were made "to ensure fans did not have to travel too far, to ensure everyone has a fantastic experience."

June 16, 2022, 5:48 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

The final regional groups for 2026. (This matters because, to reduce travel, FIFA plans to group countries by region.)

EAST: Toronto (BMO Field); Boston (Gillette Stadium, Foxborough); Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field); Miami (Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens); and New York/New Jersey(MetLife Stadium.)

CENTRAL: Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadum); Dallas (AT&T Stadium); Atlanta (Mercedes Benz Stadium); Houston (NRG Stadium); Monterrey, Mexico (Estadio BBVA); Mexico City (Estadio Azteca).

WEST: Vancouver (BC Place); Seattle (Lumen Field); San Francisco (Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara); Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium, Inglewood); and Guadalajara, Mexico (Estadio Akron).

June 16, 2022, 5:44 p.m. ET

James Wagner

The final tally of the cities that didn’t make the cut: Cincinnati; Denver; Nashville; Orlando; Pasadena, Calif.; Washington, D.C./Baltimore; Edmonton.

June 16, 2022, 5:42 p.m. ET

A New York-area World Cup final? A governor and a mayor are bidding.

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As the largest city in the United States, the New York metropolitan area has long been viewed as a likely home for multiple games in the 2026 World Cup. But after hosting a semifinal in 1994, the last time World Cup matches were held in the United States, the area now has its eye on the tournament’s biggest prize: the final.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said he and others supporting the New York/New Jersey region’s efforts to attract World Cup matches had a “high degree of confidence” that MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., would make the cut in Thursday’s announcement by FIFA, global soccer’s governing body and the organizer of the World Cup, which will trim a final list of 22 candidate cities down to the actual hosts.

And once that is done, the focus will shift to: Which games? And how about that final?

“We’ve got all the things that FIFA would want in a finals region and stadium, and that’s why we’re going at this hard,” Murphy said of a group of regional officials that also includes Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.

Murphy said the N.Y./N.J. group’s understanding was that FIFA would not reveal the package of games assigned to each stadium, including the final, until next year. That is different from the last time the World Cup came to America. Back then, local organizers set the cities that would host the biggest matches; under a series of FIFA reforms, though, the soccer body now makes those choices itself.

Murphy said the city and state officials have been negotiating with FIFA for months. Should they become one of the finalists for the championship game, one of the most-watched sporting spectacles on earth, he said they planned to continue with the same approach.

Murphy said he expected to have another chance to pitch the New York metropolitan area to soccer officials, but insisted that the needed infrastructure they would be seeking was already in place to host a final.

“They’ll want to know where we have fan fests, what the travel time looks like from their hotels in New York City, under the Hudson, to the stadium in East Rutherford,” Murphy said. “I assume there’s going to be a lot of that. But the mayor and I will be ready for it.”

Murphy began the N.Y./N.J. bid process with Adams’s predecessor, Bill de Blasio. He has continued it with Adams since he became mayor in January. Adams framed New York’s desire to land the final in economic terms, particularly as part of a recovery from the pandemic, and cultural ones. The World Cup field will expand to 48 teams, from 32, beginning in 2026, and Adams said New York could serve as home to any of them.

“It’s really reintroducing the global cousins to their family members here, because you can’t find a country of the 48 that will be vying that’s not represented in our region,” he said.

June 16, 2022, 5:41 p.m. ET

James Wagner

The East Region, and final group to be announced on Thursday: Toronto (BMO Field, which will need expanding); Boston (Gillette Stadium in Foxborough); Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field); Miami (Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens); and New York/New Jersey's MetLife Stadium.

June 16, 2022, 5:40 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

Toronto, Boston (which hosted games in 1994) and Philadelphia start the East.

June 16, 2022, 5:39 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

The Central region includes three stadiums with retractable roofs: Dallas, Houston and Atlanta. That was believed to be important to FIFA, since they will be immune to rain and (importantly) heat in cities that can be Qatar-hot in the summer. Those three cities also can host games in the afternoon, which is important since they would be in European prime time.

June 16, 2022, 5:37 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

Reading over the candidates, the list of the first 11 cities representing the West and Central regions means the end of the line for a few others: Edmonton, Denver, Pasadena.

June 16, 2022, 5:35 p.m. ET

James Wagner

The Central Region in its entirety: Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadum); Dallas (AT&T); Atlanta (Mercedes Benz Stadium); Houston (NRG Stadium); and then the second two Mexican cities, Monterrey (Estadio BBVA) and Mexico City (the venerable Estadio Azteca).

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June 16, 2022, 5:33 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

Dallas — er, AT&T Stadium in Arlington — is next. Then Atlanta, Houston, Monterrey and Mexico City.

June 16, 2022, 5:32 p.m. ET

James Wagner

A surprise already in the Central Region: Kansas City.

June 16, 2022, 5:32 p.m. ET

James Wagner

Guadalajara was selected as a host of World Cup games for the third time in its history. Seattle and Vancouver will be first timers. “It’s amazing the World Cup is finally coming to Canada,” Jonathan Osorio of Canadian national team tells Fox Sports.

June 16, 2022, 5:30 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

That could also be bad news for Denver, depending on what FIFA classifies as West vs. Central.

June 16, 2022, 5:30 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

The selection of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., — the gleaming new home of the Los Angeles Rams — is notable, because it appears to mean the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which hosted the 1994 World Cup final, is out.

June 16, 2022, 5:27 p.m. ET

James Wagner

The Western Region will be made up of the following cities: Vancouver; Seattle, San Francisco (actually Santa Clara, Calif.); Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium in Inglewood); and Guadalajara, Mexico.

June 16, 2022, 5:27 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

The Concacaf president, the Canadian Victor Montagliani, gets it started with Vancouver.

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June 16, 2022, 5:23 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

The cities will be revealed in three groups: West, Central, then East. At some point. For now, Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, is talking about how it will be "huge." No kidding.

June 16, 2022, 5:22 p.m. ET

James Wagner

The 2026 World Cup will be the third time Mexico has hosted the event, making it the first country to do so. It was previously the host of the 1970 and 1986 World Cups. The United States will be hosting it for a second time (1994 and 2026). And Canada — which qualified for the 2022 World Cup, its first since 1986 — will be first time hosts, although, like the United States, it has hosted the Women's World Cup.

June 16, 2022, 5:20 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

It will surprise no one on earth that this event is not getting right down to business. If you’re having flashbacks to the World Cup draw in April, please know that they are valid and that you’re not alone.

June 16, 2022, 5:08 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

How will this all work tonight? Expect the cities to be rolled out in groups, by region, rather than haphazardly, or one at a time. But no one, not even FIFA, has done this before, so we’ll all learn together.

June 16, 2022, 5:04 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

Top players from the three countries are in the plaza for their federations’ big night: Christian Pulisic (United States), Hirving “Chucky” Lozano (Mexico) and Jonathan Osorio (Canada).

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June 16, 2022, 4:59 p.m. ET

James Wagner

I’ve arrived at Rockefeller Center, where officials from FIFA, along with many others and reporters, are gathered to hear which cities and stadiums will survive the final cut and earn the right to host 2026 World Cup games. Although the program starts at 5 p.m. Eastern time, expect the unveilings to happen deeper into the show.

June 16, 2022, 4:54 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

I was in Qatar earlier this week, reporting on the preparations for the 2022 World Cup, which under its original bid was supposed to kick off this month. I wrote about what I saw in today’s Times.

June 16, 2022, 4:41 p.m. ET

Boston or Foxborough? Dallas or Arlington? Prepare for some geography shorthand.

Yes, The New York Times is aware that MetLife Stadium is in East Rutherford, N.J., not New York. Yes, we have been to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., and yes we even know that some people spell that last place Foxboro.

Prepare yourself for some geographic fudging in Thursday’s announcements of the 2026 World Cup host cities, because FIFA has already done quite a bit of it during the process. The Washington-Baltimore combined bid, for example, would bring games to Baltimore, but not Washington. This map alone appears to have cut Dallas and Denver completely loose from their moorings.

But fair warning: Our live coverage will probably follow that lead, for simplicity, with notations for specificity as needed.

Each of the 22 finalists (and 23 stadiums) has been attached to a major metropolitan area, even if the stadium linked to each candidacy does not technically sit in said city.

Here’s the full list (with each stadium and its actual location):

United States

Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium)

Boston (Gillette Stadium, Foxborough)

Cincinnati (Paul Brown Stadium)

Dallas (AT&T Stadium, Arlington)

Denver (Empower Field at Mile High Stadium)

Houston (NRG Stadium)

Kansas City, Mo. (Arrowhead Stadium)

Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, and the Rose Bowl, Pasadena)

Miami (Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens)

Nashville (Nissan Stadium)

New York/New Jersey (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.)

Orlando, Fla. (Camping World Stadium)

Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field)

San Francisco (Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif.)

Seattle (Lumen Field)

Washington, D.C./Baltimore (M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore)

Canada

Edmonton (Commonwealth Stadium)

Toronto (BMO Field)

Vancouver (B.C. Place)

Mexico

Guadalajara (Estadio Akron, Zapopan)

Mexico City (Estadio Azteca)

Monterrey (Estadio BBVA, Guadalupe).

June 16, 2022, 4:24 p.m. ET

James Wagner

The process of planning the 2026 World Cup began five years ago, when the United States, Mexico and Canada joined forces in an effort to scare off any competition and offer FIFA what they believed was an unbeatable proposal. The plan then was heavily U.S.-centered: The partners agreed that the United States would host 60 of the 80 games in the expanded 48-team event, with 10 each for Mexico and Canada, and every match from the quarterfinals onward as the tournament marched east to west toward a final outside New York City. But FIFA has made clear it is not bound by the bid’s agreements and suggestions, so there could be some surprises tonight.

June 16, 2022, 4:18 p.m. ET

Andrew Das

I just realized the Morocco 2026 Twitter account lives on. It hasn’t tweeted since the day it lost out to North America in June 2018.

June 16, 2022, 4:14 p.m. ET

How did North America win the 2026 World Cup? Lobbying, legwork and three letters from Trump.

It’s easy to forget that the joint bid of the United States, Mexico and Canada once faced surprisingly difficult competition from its only challenger for the 2026 World Cup hosting rights: Morocco.

Morocco had only declared its intention to enter the race on the final day of a FIFA-imposed deadline for bidders in 2017. But it soon got some traction in the race, buoyed by support from the likes of China, which worked on its behalf to secure Asian votes, and France, which did the same in Europe, and its former colonies in Africa. At the same time, the dawn of Donald J. Trump’s presidency — and his threats to close the U.S.-Mexico border, and his insults about African countries — stalled what most had expected, until then, to be a North American stroll to victory in the voting.

By 2018, Morocco was gaining ground and turning up the pressure. In its official bid book, it highlighted the country’s low murder rate and its “very low gun circulation” — a not-too-subtle dig at the rival bid led by the United States, a country that was, then and still, engaged in a roiling national discussion about gun safety.

In the end, though, FIFA members went with the sure thing after some savvy North American lobbying, and some behind-the-scenes help from the Trump administration, helped turn the tide. When the final vote was held in Moscow on the eve of the 2018 World Cup, it was a landslide: 134 to 65.

June 16, 2022, 4:02 p.m. ET

FIFA’s selections will come from a list of 22 finalists.

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar kicks off in only five months, but the tournament’s organizer will look beyond it on Thursday — far beyond — when it names the host cities for the 2026 World Cup in North America. The 2026 championship will be a multinational affair, hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, which won the bidding for the event four years ago. But the choice of the cities — probably 16 — that will get the matches rests with FIFA, global soccer’s governing body. FIFA, which once relied on local organizing committees to take on major planning responsibilities for the World Cup, took those back in house starting in 2026.

World Cup fans will be familiar with many of the choices. Two of the stadiums — Mexico’s City’s Azteca Stadium (twice) and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. — have already hosted a World Cup final. Six of the American cities and all three of the Mexican ones have been home to previous World Cup matches, and two of the Canadian finalists were vetted by FIFA before hosting games in the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

FIFA is expected to select 16 cities from a list of 22 finalists, divided — quite unequally — among the three host nations, in its most consequential decision about the 2026 tournament since North America was picked to host it.

The finalists:

United States (16): Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C./Baltimore.

Mexico (3): Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey

Canada (3): Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver.

The 22 finalists survived a cull that began in 2017 and saw more than 40 applications from potential host cities in North America, a group that once included seemingly sure things like Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey and Mexico City, but also the since-discarded hopes of places like New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Jacksonville, Fla., in the United States; and Montreal, Ottawa and Regina, Saskatchewan, in Canada.

Mexico’s three candidate cities have, curiously, never changed from the first list in 2017 to the last.

“In line with the previous stages of the FIFA World Cup 2026 selection process, any announcement will be made in the best interests of football,” the FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani said last month, a lofty sentiment that FIFA has struggled to live up to in the past.