The announcement of the host cities of the 2026 World Cup, which will be jointly organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada, surprised by the number of cities that will host matches in the first of those countries, compared to the other two.
The announcement brings a record: the Azteca stadium in Mexico City, venue for the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals, will be the first venue in history to host matches from three different editions.
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The other two cities chosen to host the 2026 World Cup are Guadalajara, at the Akron stadium, home of Chivas, and Monterrey, at BBVA, where the Rayados play.
For its part, Canada will have two host cities: Toronto (BMO Field) and Vancouver (BC Place Stadium).
Instead, the United States, which had already hosted the tournament in 1994, will have 11 venues: Atlanta (Mercedes-Benz Stadium), Boston (Gillette Stadium), Dallas (AT&T Stadium), Houston (NRG Stadium), Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadium), Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium), Miami (Hard Rock Stadium), New York/ New Jersey (MetLife Stadium), Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field), San Francisco (Levi’s Stadium) and Seattle (Lumen Field).
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All of these fields are home to teams in the American Football League (NFL) and include fields that are candidates to host the final of the tournament, such as MetLife Stadium and SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020 with a budget of more than 5,000 million dollars.
Why does the United States have more host cities than Canada and Mexico? When the joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup was organized, it was decided that the United States would receive the majority of the matches.
The 2026 World Cup will have 16 more games than Qatar
It should be remembered that the World Cup after Qatar 2022 will be the first with 48 teams, 16 more than this year. 80 games will be played, 16 more than the one that is on the way, and there will be a phase prior to the group stage, similar to what is done in tournaments such as the Champions League or the Copa Libertadores.
The agreement established that both Mexico and Canada would receive 10 matches each, all from the first phase or the group stage.. The tournament will be played entirely in the United States starting with the quarterfinals.
As it is, 60 of the 80 tournament matches will be played on US soil. It is not yet established in which of the host cities the opening match and the grand final of the tournament will take place.
In this regard, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “We will take our time with that decision. There are still some discussions to follow and we will certainly choose the best cities for the openings and the finals.”
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with AFP
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