FIFA World Cup 2026 schedule — every match, every kickoff

Key dates of the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Whether you're planning a trip, organising a viewing party, or building a betting calendar, these are the dates that anchor the tournament. The FIFA World Cup schedule was finalised on 6 December 2025, the day after the official draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

How the FIFA World Cup 2026 dates fit together

For the first time, the World Cup runs 39 days instead of the roughly 32 days of previous tournaments. The expansion to 48 teams added an extra knockout round — the new round of 32 — which means eight teams will play eight matches each on their way to lifting the trophy, one more than the seven that World Cup champions used to play.

Group-stage games are spaced four days apart for each team, so a nation's three matches typically fall in roughly a 12-day window. The hosts each play their opening fixture on home soil: Mexico kicks off the entire tournament on 11 June, while Canada and the United States both open on 12 June at BMO Field in Toronto and SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles respectively. Each host nation's three group-stage matches stay within their own country.

Group stage match schedule

Twelve groups, four teams each, three matches per team — that's 72 group-stage fixtures across 17 days. Kickoff times are staggered across multiple time zones, with afternoon and evening slots in the United States, plus the very early local kickoffs Mexican fans will recognise.

Matchday 3 carries a special twist: the final two fixtures in every group kick off simultaneously. That means 12 pairs of games — 24 matches across six days — playing concurrently to prevent any team from knowing the result of the parallel match before its own ends. The new FIFA World Cup match schedule also keeps the strongest seeds geographically clustered to limit travel between matches.

Sample group stage match schedule (Group A)

For the full draw across all 12 groups, see our groups and draw page. Every group has its own three-matchday block, but the format above repeats: two early head-to-heads, one matchup involving each pairing in turn, then the final round played simultaneously.

Knockout schedule — round of 32 to the final

The new round of 32 is the headline change in the FIFA World Cup schedule 2026. The top two teams from each of the 12 groups (24 teams) plus the eight best third-placed teams from across the tournament fill out a 32-team bracket. From there, single-elimination football carries through to the final on 19 July.

1. Round of 32 (28 June – 3 July): 16 matches across multiple US, Mexican and Canadian venues. The first knockout round most fans have ever seen at a World Cup.
2. Round of 16 (4–7 July): 8 matches, mostly in the US with select Mexican and Canadian venues.
3. Quarter-finals (9–11 July): 4 matches at Boston, Kansas City, Los Angeles and Miami.
4. Semi-finals (14–15 July): Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and AT&T Stadium in Dallas.
5. Third-place playoff (18 July): Hard Rock Stadium, Miami.
6. Final (19 July): MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, branded as "New York New Jersey Stadium" — kickoff at 15:00 ET.

What changed compared to previous tournaments

The expanded calendar makes the FIFA World Cup 2026 schedule structurally different from anything fans have seen before. With 48 teams and 104 matches (up from 64 in 2022), the group stage takes longer, the knockout phase has an extra round, and the spacing between matches for individual teams is slightly different. Teams that finish first in their group get an extra rest day before the round of 32 — a real competitive advantage in a US summer where humidity and travel are factors.

The opening match's host has also changed. Estadio Banorte (formerly Estadio Azteca) is the only stadium at this tournament that has hosted World Cup matches before — both finals there came in 1970 and 1986 — so the opener carries extra historical weight. Compare that with the broader host cities and venues where every other stadium is a first-timer for the men's World Cup.

Frequently asked questions about the World Cup schedule