The FIFA World Cup is considered the pinnacle competition of International football played once every four years. The highly anticipated tournament brings in some of the best names in the game, iconic teams, legendary goals, relentless dramas and unforgettable memories. The World Cup not only keeps the hope of a nation creating history at the tournament but also boosts a country’s image by bringing fans around the globe turning the event into a festival. So, nations and their confederations offer bids to host the grand tournament.
So far 18 countries have hosted the Men’s World Cup since it began in 1930 with the tournament happening in seven nations more than once. The Women’s World Cup was started in 1991 with 10 countries getting a chance to host the tournament with USA and China doing it twice. The last Men’s World Cup was held in Qatar in 2022, being the third Asian nation and the first Middle-East country to host it. The ninth edition of the Women’s World Cup was hosted by two countries for the first time in the competition’s history, Australia and New Zealand in 2023.
Here are the hosts for the next World Cups:
FIFA World Cup 2026
The next edition of the World Cup taking place in 2026 will be a historical one in many ways. For the first time in history, the tournament will be hosted by three nations i.e. Canada, Mexico and the United States. Mexico hosted the World Cup twice before with the USA doing it in 1994, the last time the competition was hosted in a CONCACAF nation. Meanwhile, Canada hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2015 making all the nations capable of organising an event like this. However, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be nothing like before as a revolutionary format change expanded the tournament with 48 teams set to participate. A significant increase from the 32-team format with a new knockout stage, the round of 32 to be played after the conclusion of group games. The competition will be played in 16 cities across the three countries for over a month, starting on June 11 and concluding with the final on July 19, 2026. The total number of games played will increase from 64 to 104 making it an international football festivity not seen before.
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027
The 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was a record-breaking event showcasing the true value of women’s football. The tournament was the first to feature an expanded format of 32 teams and it picked up a huge viewership, earning double the projected revenue. The competition drew attention to women’s football even more with the success also prompting football heavyweight nations, concerned about hosting only the Men’s World Cup before, to seriously consider bids for the Women’s World Cup now. For the next edition in 2027, a joint proposal was submitted by Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands with the other interested party being Brazil. Brazil won the right to host the tournament on 17 May 2024 becoming the first South American nation where the Women’s World Cup was held. It was the first time since the men’s World Cup in 2014 that the samba nation will be at the centre stage of another global international football event at the senior level while becoming only the sixth nation to host the World Cup in both divisions. 12 venues were selected to be the venues for the tournament with 11 of them used in the 2014 event.
FIFA World Cup 2030
FIFA announced the hosts for the next two men’s World Cup following the 2026 edition in the last council meeting of 2024 on 11th December. The 2030 World Cup marks the centenary year of the competition and will be the biggest in its history with six countries hosting it while earning automatic qualification to the tournament. Spain, Portugal and Morocco were declared the main hosts for the tournament but to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the competition, the opening three games will be played in South America. As the inaugural edition of the competition in 1930 hosted by Uruguay, they alongside Argentina and Paraguay will get to host one game each with the tournament opener taking place in Montevideo. The rest of the games will be held in the other three countries. Spain will host most of the games in the tournament, with nine venues, while Morocco, the second African country to host the World Cup, will have six venues. In Portugal, only Porto and Lisbon will share the hosting duties for the tournament.
