When did Argentina start defending the World Cup?
In 1938, for Italy, it was the first time that the World Cup champion automatically had a ticket to the next tournament, until this rule was abandoned at the 2010 World Cup. Therefore, after winning the 2022 World Cup, Argentina still had to qualifying for the next World Cup.
In the Qatar 2022 final at Lusail Stadium on December 18, Argentina and France drew 3-3 after 120 minutes and had to decide whether to win or lose in the penalty shootout. Here, Argentina showed bravery when successfully kicking all four rounds, while France had two broken players, Aurelien Tchouameni and Kingsley Coman.
Thanks to that, Argentina won the World Cup for the third time, after 1978 and 1986, surpassing the achievement of France with two times of winning the Gold Cup in 1998 and 2018. The most successful teams are Italy (winner in 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), Germany (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014) and Brazil (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002).
At the beginning of 2017, FIFA approved the decision to increase the participation in the 2026 World Cup from 32 to 48 teams. This decision helps all member associations of FIFA benefit from having more places to attend the World Cup. Specifically, Europe still has the most seats, increasing from 13 to 16. Africa increased 4 seats to increase to 9, South America got 6 seats. Oceania will have an official slot instead of the current play-off, while Asia has 4 more to make 8 official slots. North, Central America and the Caribbean, because there are three direct host countries, will have 3 more official slots. The remaining two places will be decided by intercontinental play-offs.
The qualifying round for South America will still take place in a round-robin format, with two legs - home, away - scoring points to rank the ranking that has been applied since the 1998 World Cup qualifiers.
The 2026 World Cup is co-hosted across 16 cities in three North American countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States. This is the first time the tournament has been co-hosted by three countries. Before that, in 2002, Japan and Korea were the first two countries to host the biggest tournament on the planet.
Mexico will be the first country to host the World Cup three times, after 1970 and 1986. The US has hosted the World Cup for the second time after 1994, and the 2026 World Cup is the first time Canada has this honor.
The total number of matches at the 2026 World Cup will increase from 64 to 80, but one team will still play seven games, like the 32-team version. The 2026 World Cup is also scheduled to take place in 32 days, like the previous 32-team tournaments. 60 World Cup matches in 2026, including quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, will take place in the US. The remaining two countries, each holding 10 matches. The final will take place at Met Life Stadium, New Jersey with a capacity of 85,000.
