A growing number of national teams have joined the three hosts of the 2026 World Cup to compete for the championship next summer. The final will be held July 19, 2026, in New Jersey.
As of June 2025, 13 teams have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. The tournament will include 48 national teams, up from 32 in Qatar in 2022. The three host teams qualified automatically, taking three spots from the Concacaf region (North America, Central America and the Caribbean).
In March 2025, four teams earned a direct spot during the long qualification process: Japan, representing the Asian Football Confederation; New Zealand, winner of the Oceania qualifying series; Iran, taking the second ticket from Asia; and Argentina, as the first team to qualify from the South American region.
On June 5, 2025, three more teams joined the party, all from the Asia region: Uzbekistan, South Korea and Jordan. And on June 10, three more got their pass to the 2026 finals: Australia, from the Asian region; and Brazil and Ecuador from South America. Brazil is the only team that has played in all finals since 1930.
The 2026 World Cup will be played in 16 host cities, 11 of them in the U.S. The San Francisco Bay Area will host six matches, five during the group stage from June 13 to June 25, and a round of 32 game on July 1. The group matches for the three hosts have been assigned: The U.S. will play in Los Angeles and Seattle; Canada in Vancouver and Toronto; and Mexico in Guadalajara and Mexico City. The rest of the qualifiers will be placed in their groups through a lottery.
Every region has a certain allocation of spots, but all of them — except Europe — also earn spots for a playoff that will define the last two places to get to the total of 48.
Here’s how FIFA distributed the tickets to 2026:
- AFC (Asia): 8 tickets, plus one playoff spot
- CAF (Africa): 9 tickets, plus one playoff spot
- Concacaf (North America, Central America and Caribbean): 3 automatic spots for the hosts, 3 tickets and 2 playoff spots
- CONMEBOL: 6 tickets, plus one playoff spot
- OFC (Oceania): 1 ticket and one playoff spot
- UEFA (Europe): 16 tickets
Full list of teams qualified to the 2026 World Cup
- United States (Concacaf, host)
- Canada (Concacaf, host)
- Mexico (Concacaf, host)
- Japan (AFC, qualified on March 20)
- New Zealand (OFC, qualified on March 24)
- Iran (AFC, qualified on March 25)
- Argentina (Conmebol, qualified on March 25)
- Uzbekistan (AFC, qualified on June 5)
- Jordan (AFC, qualified on June 5)
- South Korea (AFC, qualified on June 5)
- Australia (AFC, qualified on June 10)
- Brazil (Conmebol, qualified on June 10)
- Ecuador (Conmebol, qualified on June 10)
