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FIFA is preparing to approve a change that will establish the format for the world's largest and longest soccer championship.
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The 2026 World Cup in North America, already the largest and longest tournament history due to field expansion, is set to grow even more as FIFA leaders were poised to agree to a format change that would add 24 more games.
The change will result in a marathon men's soccer championship, with 48 teams playing 104 games in three countries over as many as 40 days, and the champion and runner-up each playing eight rounds instead of the current seven.
The format is expected to be approved on Tuesday following a meeting of FIFA's governing council, soccer's global governing body, and World Cup organizer. Several people familiar with the situation confirmed it.
The change will also require organizers to clear more dates in the 16 cities chosen to host the World Cup, which could be a problematic scheduling dance for stadium officials juggling a summer of sports, events, and concerts in their massive arenas.
The 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, will be the first to feature 48 teams, up from the current 32-nation competition, which has been in place since 1998.
Earlier discussions focused on dividing the teams into 16 groups of three. However, following last year's nail-biting group stage finish in Qatar, and with officials concerned about a situation in which three-team groups could be manipulated and teams eliminated after only two games, FIFA revisited the issue.
According to people familiar with the meeting, the heads of soccer's six confederations met with FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Monday night, and none raised any objections to the proposed format. A formal confirmation is expected later on Tuesday, following a meeting of FIFA's 36-member governing council, which is also expected to approve the changes.
Adding more games means adding more days. A period of this length is likely to enrage players' unions.
The North American World Cup is the first men's tournament to be awarded since Infantino took over as FIFA president in 2016. While many of the governing body's smaller member nations have welcomed the expansion due to the increased opportunities for qualification and the billions of dollars in additional revenue it will generate, many fans and commentators have expressed concern that the move will degrade the event's quality.
Infantino predicts a record-breaking payday for the 2026 World Cup; FIFA has budgeted for $11 billion in revenue over the four-year cycle to 2026, nearly $4 billion more than it earned during the same period for the Qatar World Cup.
Montagliani also questioned whether the impact on player health would be as severe as the unions had predicted.
"Too many games only apply to the top 1% of players," he claims. "Therein lies the problem. In reality, the average professional does not play much. The notion that they are all overacting is not accurate."
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