The men’s World Cup is a tournament for national teams, held every four years, that starts with groups and ends in knockout football. Since 2026 it has taken 48 teams, split into 12 groups of four, and cut them down to one champion over 104 matches.
Before any of that, a team has to earn its place, and that takes longer than the tournament itself.
How a team qualifies
Qualifying runs through FIFA’s six regional confederations over the three years before each tournament. For 2026, five of them finished their qualifiers with the last international dates of 2025: the AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and OFC. That still left six places open when the draw for the finals took place on December 5, 2025, at the John F. Kennedy Center.
Europe’s route shows how involved the late stages get. UEFA’s 12 group winners qualified directly, and four more places went to a play-off among 16 teams. Those were the 12 group runners-up plus four Nations League group winners with the best UEFA ranking.
MARCA set out the format. The 16 teams were split into four paths, each with a one-off semi-final on March 26 and a final on March 31. The winner of each path went to the World Cup.
The last two places went to an intercontinental play-off of six teams from every confederation except UEFA. CONCACAF had two of them, Jamaica and Suriname, with New Caledonia for Oceania and DR Congo for Africa among the rest. The two best-ranked sides waited in the finals, while the other four played semi-finals in Mexico.
What happens in the group stage
At the finals, each group of four plays a round robin, so every team meets the other three once. The top two in each group go through, and so do the eight best third-placed teams.
That makes 32 teams in the knockout rounds. One practical effect is that finishing third in a group is no longer the end. A single win can be enough to keep a team alive.
How the knockout rounds work
From the round of 32 on, every match is single elimination. Lose and you are out. A drawn match goes to extra time, and if it is still level after that, a penalty shootout settles it.
The 2026 tournament opened on June 11 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, with Mexico playing South Africa. The final was set for July 19 at the stadium FIFA calls New York/New Jersey, which sits in New Jersey. In between, Canada, Mexico and the United States shared 16 host cities.
Why 48 teams, when it used to be 32?
The field has grown in steps. The first World Cup, in 1930, had 13 teams. The 2022 edition, like several before it, had 32.
The Guardian noted two readings of the jump to 48. Critics say FIFA wanted more revenue from a tournament that brought in around $7.5bn in 2022. FIFA says the income pays for grassroots football, and that a bigger field gives smaller nations a chance to play on the biggest stage.
Not every change has been welcome. A Guardian analysis found the cheapest tickets for the 2026 final cost nearly ten times what they had in 2022. FIFA also takes a 30% fee on tickets resold through its own site.
How often it happens, and who holds it
The tournament has run every four years since 1930, apart from 1942 and 1946, when the Second World War and its aftermath stopped it. Shocks are part of the format. Argentina lost their opening match of 2022 to Saudi Arabia and went on to win the whole thing.
This time Argentina reached the final again. Spain beat them there to take their second title, adding to the one they won in 2010. The next World Cup is due four years on, and its qualifiers begin long before then.
