The journey made by the FIFA World Cup throughout its 92-year history has taken millions of soccer fans to many countries. From the first stop in Uruguay to upcoming Qatar. To which corner of the globe will it take us after the 2022 edition?
In total, 18 different countries have hosted the FIFA World Cup over the course of its 22 editions. Only Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, and Brazil have been able to host it twice. The rest have been new territories that have been conquered by the greatest event that soccer is capable of delivering to its fans.
From the American continent, six countries have hosted the FIFA World Cup (Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and the United States); from Europe, 8 countries have been chosen (Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden, England, Germany, Spain, and Russia); from Asia only 3 (Korea, Japan, and Qatar), and only 1 African country (South Africa).
Life after Qatar 2022: which country will host the 2026 World Cup?
Yes, we just have on the horizon the biggest party of world soccer to be held in Qatar 2022 from November 20to December 18, but FIFA already has in mind where the action will be directed after the Middle East host for the first time this tournament.
In fact since June 2018, days before the inauguration of the twenty-first edition of the FIFA World Cup in Russia, it was already known which would be the next stop of the most prestigious tournament in the world after Qatar 2022.
The 2026 edition of the FIFA World Cup will be historic for several reasons. For the first time in history, this tournament will be hosted by three nations, Canada, Mexico and the United States. This makes Mexico the country with the most organized editions of the World Cup so far with 3 (1970, 1986 and 2026).
Just as France 1998 went down in history as the first edition to feature 32 teams, Canada-Mexico-USA 2026 will go down in the books as the first time 48 teams were admitted to the tournament. So far it is known that they will be distributed in 16 groups of 3 teams and that the direct elimination round will begin in the Round of 32.
And the FIFA World Cup 2030?
It will not be until the seventy-fourth FIFA Congress in 2024 that the host of the 2030 World Cup will be known. So far there are already postulated candidacies, so the options are limited to the following countries.
In an attempt to bring the World Cup to Africa for the second time, Morocco has raised its hand to host the great soccer event in 2030. Its bid could be a solo bid or a joint one with countries such as Algeria, Tunisia and even Cameroon.
For Conmebol, there is a very high possibility that it will fight to organize the 2030 World Cup with a historic bloc: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay. Three of them already have experience as host cities and two of them are two-time World Cup champions, enough reason to consider it as a very serious option.
Regarding toUEFA, the strongest candidacy is that of two neighboring nations with a great soccer culture and tradition: Spain and Portugal. At the time, a union between Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Serbia, in addition to another from the United Kingdom, threatened to compete, but ended up being diluted.