FIFA announced on Tuesday that the United States, Mexico, and Canada have been granted automatic spots as the co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup.
The three North American countries will host the tournament which will see it expanded to 48 teams. The remaining CONCACAF teams will compete for the three other spots through qualifiers.
“In addition, the FIFA Council confirmed that, in line with the long-standing tradition of having all hosts competing at the FIFA World Cup, as well as sporting and operational considerations, the hosts of the FIFA World Cup 2026, namely Canada, Mexico and the USA, will qualify automatically for the final round of the competition, with their slots therefore being deducted from the overall allocation of six assigned to CONCACAF,” soccer’s governing body said in a statement.
Sixteen host cities have already been selected for the tournament, with the U.S. being designated 11 while Mexico and Canada have three and two respectively.
FIFA has so far provided no details on how the 48-team field for the 2026 World Cup will be formatted.