Doha: The world football organization FIFA has decided to revise the format of the World Cup 2026.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has confirmed that the governing body will review the format of the 2026 World Cup after the success of the four-team group format at the ongoing World Cup in Qatar.
The World Cup held in Qatar featured 32 teams who were divided into 8 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams from each group qualifying for the knockout stages, a format that had been in place since 1998.
However, this World Cup is the last World Cup of this format as FIFA has already announced that the 2026 World Cup scheduled to be held in America, Canada and Mexico will be longer.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first time that the tournament will feature 48 teams instead of the current 32-team format and will be divided into 3 groups of 16 and 16 teams respectively.
However, considering the popularity of the 4-team group format in the World Cup by FIFA, there is a possibility that the 2026 World Cup will also be held on the same format.
According to reports, while addressing the media after the FIFA Council meeting in Doha on Friday, the FIFA president said that the group of four teams was excellent, until the last minute of the last match you didn’t know who was going to advance which is why Interest in the tournament has been generated.
He said that we will have to review the format of the World Cup 2026 in the next meeting.