FIFA World Cup to have 104 matches in 2026
FIFA is set to approve an expansion of the men's World Cup today with 40 more matches from the 2026 tournament in North America, Sky News understands.
The decision to grow from 64 to 104 matches - rather than the 80 originally planned in 2026 - is due to come at a meeting of the governing body's ruling council in Kigali, Rwanda.
Adding matches helps FIFA chase its target of more than £9bn in revenue but it also solves format issues for the event being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
FIFA had already agreed to enlarge the tournament from 32 to 48 teams.
Rather than having 16 groups each featuring three teams, FIFA will have 12 groups each with four countries, sources say.
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The top two teams will advance to a round of 32 with the eight best third-placed teams.
It means teams reaching the final will now have to play eight matches, rather than the seven played by Qatar 2022 finalists Argentina and France.
The final in the United States is due to be on Sunday, 19 July 2026.
It's understood 56 days would be needed for the pre-tournament availability of players and the World Cup itself - the same as the three World Cups before the winter schedule-disrupted Qatar 2022.
Concerns about the workload on players are set to be addressed by a new task force the FIFA Council is set to approve.
The aim is for a mandatory rest period every season for players. FIFA envisages a minimum of two full days between any two matches and ideally 72 hours.
The group considering the plans will include medics, union officials and football figures.
It will feed into the process that will restructure the international match calendars that determine when clubs must release players to play for their countries after plans were abandoned for the frequency of World Cups to be doubled to every two years.
The FIFA Council is also set to usher in an examination of further protections for the welfare of female players.
New employment rules were introduced by FIFA in 2021 mandate clubs to allow players at least 14 weeks of maternity leave paid at a minimum two-thirds of salary.
Now FIFA is looking at setting out rights for female players on adoption, abortion, menstrual health, multiple births, breastfeeding and childcare.
FIFA's rules enabled Icelandic player Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir to secured more than £72,000 in back pay that was wrongly withheld by French club Lyon around the birth of her child in 2021.
