The 2022 World Cup has just ended and preparations are already underway for the 2026 edition.
For the first time, the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in three countries (Canada, the US, and Mexico), will feature 48 teams. To mark the occasion, FIFA decided at the end of December 2022 to redistribute the places reserved for the football confederations:
– UEFA (European Confederation) will have 16 national teams, three more than currently, and CAF (African Confederation) will have nine, four more than currently. This will be the most represented continent after Europe.
– The AFC (Asian Confederation) will have 8 teams.
– CONMEBOL (South American Confederation) will have 6 teams.
– CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean) will have 6 teams.
And the OFC (Oceania Confederation) will have 1 team.
FIFA, which had decided to have 48 teams play in groups of three (16 groups), is now considering, given the success of the four-team group format during the 2022 World Cup, opting instead for a solution with 12 groups of four teams.
Regardless of the format chosen, the number of matches would increase significantly, possibly exceeding 100 matches compared to 64 in 2022.
Total number of matches, duration of the competition, number of matches per day, number of countries involved in the organization, number of countries qualified… the 2026 World Cup will be extraordinary and will require broadcasters to have a large budget and probably agree to share rights with other competing channels.
Under these conditions, will there still be room for national broadcasters, or are we already moving towards the acquisition of the 2026 World Cup rights by one or more global or transnational players, who are the only ones capable of amortizing the enormous costs of this new competition format?