Sports Writing.- The 2026 World Cup will mark a before and after in the history of football with an unprecedented format that will bring together 48 national teams and 16 host cities distributed between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Unlike Qatar 2022, where the venues were separated by just a few kilometers, the next World Cup will feature journeys of up to 4,500 kilometers between cities, forcing players, coaching staff, and fans to face extensive air travel and time zone changes during the tournament.
The distance between cities like Vancouver and Miami, for example, exceeds five hours of flight, which will transform the logistics and rest routines between matches.
With 16 host cities, the 2026 edition will become the second with the greatest geographical deployment in the history of the World Cups, only behind Korea-Japan 2002, which had 20 venues. The tournament will thus surpass Spain 1982, which used 14 cities.
In recent decades, FIFA had maintained a more compact model with between 10 and 12 venues, as occurred in Brazil 2014, Germany 2006, and Russia 2018. However, the expansion to 48 teams and 104 matches forced the decentralization of the competition.
More Read
The impact of travel will be uneven. Selections such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Algeria, and the Czech Republic will face long journeys during the group stage, while the current champion, Argentina, will have one of the shortest itineraries of the championship, with approximately 750 kilometers of travel.
Territorial expansion will also represent a climatic and operational challenge, as the teams will have to adapt to different temperatures, altitudes and weather conditions in different regions of North America.
FIFA bets that this new format will allow for greater global reach and a more diverse experience for fans, although physical and logistical wear and tear could become a determining factor in the development of the tournament.
The 2026 World Cup will also be the first jointly organized by three countries and promises to become one of the most ambitious sporting events of all time.
