By Paul Nicholson
March 3 – FIFA is set to discuss a change to the planned first group stages for the expanded 2026 World Cup – increasing groups from three to four nations – at its next Council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, later this month.
January 9 – French coach Didier Deschamps is to stay until the 2026 World Cup after leading his country to the final of the last two editions of the tournament.
December 2 – FIFA are reported to be considering scrapping three-team groups at the World Cup 2026 tournament – the first with 48 teams – and sticking with the status quo of four-team groups.
June 17 – The 2026 World Cup hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico is beginning to take shape after FIFA announced the 16 host cities for the tournament on Thursday. The American capital Washington, D.C./Baltimore and Edmonton didn’t make the cut, reducing Canada very much to a junior partner with just two host cities.
June 16 – World federation FIFA will announce the host cities for the 2026 World Cup today, Thursday, bringing to an end a four-year bidding war among 17 US finalists.
June 9 – The Canadian men’s team may have pulled out of playing a friendly game last week as the players negotiate over 2022 World Cup bonus payments, but the City of Edmonton has confirmed it is all-in with its bid to host matches at the 2026 World Cup.
May 6 – The Houston 2026 World Cup Bid Committee, who are expected to learn whether they have secured one of the 10 US hosting slots in the coming weeks, have backed the City of Houston’s adoption of the Children’s Bill of Rights in Sports.
April 22 – World Cup host city contenders Washington, DC and Baltimore have merged their bids to create a joint application to stage 2026 World Cup matches.
April 19 – Canadian and Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies is one of the hottest players in world football. Canada’s talisman from Edmonton has led his nation to their first World Cup finals since 1986. In 2026 he could be leading them out in his home town. Davies speaks exclusively to Insideworldfootball.
January 14 – With the Qatar 2022 World Cup to be hosted at the end of this year in a country with a questionable human rights track record, the Houston 2026 World Cup Bid Committee have come up with their own community-driven Human Rights Report to support their own venue hosting credentials.
By Paul Nicholson
December 22 – Talk of a biennial World Cup has overshadowed some of the crucial decision making to be made around the 2026 World Cup, and event that in itself will be groundbreaking, both for FIFA and football.
November 18 – With Canada have pushed themselves into the top qualifying slot for the 2002 World Cup in Edmonton, it was the city’s turn to stake its claim to be a host venue for 2026.
By Paul Nicholson
November 16 – This week FIFA’s inspectors resume their whistle-stop tour of cities bidding to be host venues for the 2026 World Cup, starting in Edmonton, Canada. It is a hugely important moment for this football city, but before they roll out the red carpet for the FIFA team, they have a more pressing football engagement.
November 11 – The general secretary of the Canadian FA, Peter Montopoli, is leaving to become chief operating officer of his country’s co-hosting of the 2026 World Cup with the USA and Mexico.
By Paul Nicholson
October 19 – Football in Canada is crossing a threshold. With a Gold medal at the Olympics for the women’s team and the men’s team showing they are real contenders for a 2022 World Cup slot, there is a positivity you can almost touch coming from the country that so often lives in the sporting shadow of the US, and, in football terms, Mexico.