Canada, US, Mexico brace for World Cup extravaganza
MEXICO CITY - The largest and most complex World Cup in history kicks off in just over a year's time, with the United States, Canada and Mexico co-hosting the football extravaganza against a backdrop of political tension triggered by Donald Trump.
Forty-eight teams and millions of fans are set to descend on North America for the first-ever World Cup shared by three nations, with the tournament getting underway on June 11 next year.
In theory, the 23rd edition of the most popular sporting spectacle on the planet has all the makings of a successful tournament.
An array of venues ranging from Mexico's iconic Estadio Azteca to the glittering $5 billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will play host to 104 games spread over nearly six weeks.
The United States will host the bulk of those fixtures -- 78 -- with Canada and Mexico staging 13 each.
All games from the quarter-finals onwards will be held in the United States, with the tournament culminating in the final at New Jersey's 82,500-seater MetLife Stadium on 19 July 2026.
American officials believe the return of the World Cup to the country -- 32 years after the United States hosted the 1994 finals -- could represent a watershed moment for football in the country.
"The World Cup is going to raise the attention of the sport in ways that nobody ever dreamed of," said Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer.
FIFA's President Gianni Infantino, meanwhile, has been hyping next year's finals as the equivalent of "104 Super Bowls", contrasting the World Cup's estimated six billion viewers to the 120 million or so who tune in for the climax of the NFL season.
There are historical precedents which suggest the hype might be justified. The 1994 World Cup in the United States remains the best-attended World Cup in history, with an average of 68,600 fans flocking to each game.
Yet while organisers eagerly anticipate a commercial success, with one FIFA estimate suggesting it could generate a mammoth $11-billion in revenues, questions over other aspects of the tournament remain.
The 48 teams -- up from 32 in 2022 -- will be spread into 12 groups of four, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the knockout rounds, and the eight best third-placed teams joining them to make up a last 32.
That expansion is likely to reduce the sense of jeopardy in the first round, a problem seen in other major championships which have increased in size in recent years.
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