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Canada to Qualify Automatically for 2026 World Cup

Canada, USA and Mexico will all qualify automatically for the next World Cup which they will co-host in 2026.

The tournament, which will take place across 16 cities including Toronto and Vancouver, is set to begin on June 3 and finish on July 8.

FIFA released a statement saying: “The FIFA Council confirmed that, in line with the long-standing tradition of having all hosts competing at the FIFA World Cup, as well as sporting and operational considerations, the hosts of the FIFA World Cup 2026, namely Canada, Mexico and the USA, will qualify automatically for the final round of the competition, with their slots therefore being deducted from the overall allocation of six assigned to CONCACAF.”

The number of teams will increase significantly at the next World Cup from the current 32 to 48. The exact format of the tournament has not yet been confirmed.

The event will also be the first to feature three nations as co-hosts.

In 2002, Japan and South Korea jointly hosted the World Cup in what was the only event in men’s history to take place in more than one country.

Canada ended 36 years without qualifying for the World Cup when they participated in last year’s tournament in Qatar. Despite a promising display in their opening encounter against Belgium, they lost all three group matches as Morocco and Croatia qualified from a competitive group F.

/Stewart
Sports news editor