With the playoff playoffs concluded on Tuesday (31), the 2026 World Cup has its design complete. The table with the 72 group stage matches has been defined, which will be held at venues in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The 23rd edition of the competition will be the first with 48 teams, a considerable increase compared to the model adopted from 1998 to 2022, with 32 hopefuls for the trophy. The change in format will allow the presence of nations with little football tradition, with four debutants.
Two representatives from Asia, Jordan and Uzbekistan, one from Africa, Cape Verde, and one from the Caribbean, Curaçao, will debut at the World Cup. There will also be teams with minimal and distant experience in the tournament, such as the last two classified.
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq survived the global playoff. The African country didn’t even have that name when it played in its only World Cup, in 1974, as Zaire – and had three defeats, one of them 3-0 to Brazil. The Asian team was only in the championship in 1986, under the direction of Brazilian coach Evaristo de Macedo – also with three defeats in three games.
“It will be a great party”, said the president of FIFA (International Football Federation), Gianni Infantino, who was responsible for expanding the event to 48 teams and is already considering a new version with 64. “It’s more than a sporting competition. It’s a social event that the whole world will stop to admire.”
In the chosen model, vacancies were distributed in this way: Europe, 16; Africa, 9, Asia, 8, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, 6; South America, 6; and Oceania, 1 – in addition to the two in the world repechage. And even then Italy didn’t qualify.
The four-time champion came second in its qualifying group, led by Norway, and had to compete in the European play-offs. They beat Northern Ireland, but succumbed in the decisive duel, a penalty shootout defeat to Bosnia.
It will be the third World Cup in a row without the presence of the Italians, a negative mark that had never been achieved by any of the nations that have already lifted the cup. “I’m sorry,” said coach Gennaro Gattuso, who, as a player, was a starter in winning the fourth title in 2006 in Germany.
He will watch the 2026 edition from home, which will take place from June 11 to July 19 and will be decided at MetLife Stadium, in East Rutherford, near New Jersey and New York. Spain, France and current champion Argentina emerge as favorites at the main bookmakers.
Brazil, on the other hand, had a turbulent cycle, with the dismissal of the president of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), Ednaldo Rodrigues, replaced by Samir Xaud, and multiple coaches. After poor work by the interim Ramon Menezes, the almost interim Fernando Diniz and the short-lived Dorival Júnior, the renowned Italian Carlo Ancelotti arrived, who will be the first foreigner to manage the Brazilian team at a World Cup.
The 66-year-old coach’s charisma and vast CV offered a boost of confidence and some good moments on the field, but the green-yellow formation, with so many changes in the last four years, looks like a team far from ready. With Carletto, there have been five wins, two draws and three defeats so far – the last of which was a shock of reality, 2-1 to France, who had an athlete sent off at the beginning of the final stage and still scored another goal.
“We are on the way and we will be prepared for the World Cup”, said Ancelotti after the setback last Thursday (26), something he repeated on Tuesday (31), after a much better performance in the 3-1 victory over Croatia. “As I said after the game against France, we are on the right path,” he insisted.
The Italian’s prestige has allowed him to avoid calling up striker Neymar, 34, who has been dealing with physical problems for years and has not been taken to the national team once since the current coach was hired in May last year. The final list of 26 players will be announced on May 18th, and, as everything indicates at the moment, Brazil’s number 10 in the last three World Cups will not be on it.
Iran’s situation is less clear, although the most recent indications point to the presence of the Middle Eastern team at the World Cup. The country has been under attack by the United States since the end of February, and its team has three first-round games scheduled for North American cities: two in Inglewood (in the greater Los Angeles region) and one in Seattle.
The president of FFIRI (Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran), Mehdi Tah, even announced a boycott, but clarified that this boycott would be “of the United States, not of the World Cup”. He tried to negotiate the move of matches to Mexico, something that was rejected by FIFA.
Donald Trump – awarded by Infantino in December as the “FIFA Peace Prize” –, in his style, made aggressive and contradictory statements. “The Iranian team is welcome to the World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate for them to be in it, for their own lives and safety,” the US president said.
Infantino said last Tuesday that “Iran will be at the World Cup.” In Antalya, Turkey, he watched the Iranian team’s 5-0 victory in a friendly against Costa Rica, talked to athletes and officials and posed for photos.
“Representing a nation brings great responsibility, and I encouraged the players to continue inspiring their fans and making their people dream,” declared the FIFA official. “Football brings unity and hope, even in the most challenging situations.”
Situations are also challenging in several other regions of the planet, with conflicts in places such as Palestine and Ukraine. The Palestinian and Ukrainian teams did not qualify for the World Cup, but there will certainly be demonstrations in North American stadiums regarding the ongoing wars in the world as 48 soccer teams battle for the World Cup.
