World Cup Schedule 2026: every fixture, kick-off and venue

The 2026 World Cup schedule runs from 11 June to 19 July 2026 across the USA, Canada and Mexico. This page lays out every confirmed date, every kick-off window, and the path each surviving team has to walk from group-stage opener to the final at MetLife Stadium.

The world cup schedule at a glance

The 2026 world cup schedule is shaped by two unprecedented constraints: 48 teams instead of 32, and three host countries spanning four US time zones plus Mexico Central and Canadian Pacific. FIFA's solution was to split the country into three regions (Eastern, Central, Western) and assign group-stage matches to each region so teams don't fly cross-continent between fixtures. The full match calendar is below.

Opening matchday: 11 June 2026

The world cup schedule begins where football tradition demands: at Estadio Azteca. Mexico kick off against South Africa in front of 87,500 fans at 1pm local time, the same stadium that hosted the 1970 and 1986 finals. Estadio Akron in Guadalajara stages the second match of the tournament when South Korea face Czechia later the same day. The opening matchday closes with Group A on the board, and broadcasters around the world treat 11 June as the unofficial start of summer.

USA, Canada and Mexico openers

The three co-host openers are spread across the first 36 hours of the tournament:

• Mexico vs South Africa — Thursday 11 June, 1pm CT, Estadio Azteca (Mexico City)
• Canada vs Bosnia & Herzegovina — Friday 12 June, BMO Field (Toronto)
• USA vs Paraguay — Friday 12 June, SoFi Stadium (Los Angeles)

How the new Round of 32 changes the world cup 2026 schedule

For the first time since the 1934 tournament expanded the bracket, the World Cup adds a knockout round between the group stage and the last 16. The 12 group winners, 12 runners-up and the eight best third-placed teams (24 sides total) advance to the Round of 32 on 28 June. The 16 winners then move into a Round of 16 bracket that runs exactly like the familiar second round at past tournaments. Tactically, the change means a surviving champion plays eight matches rather than seven — an extra physical load that's already factored into the squad-size expansion to 26 players.

Critical knockout dates

The Round of 16 game on 4 July deserves a calendar reminder — it's at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on the 250th anniversary of American independence, and FIFA has scheduled it as the marquee local fixture of the tournament's middle weekend.

What time do matches kick off in your region?

The 2026 world cup schedule was designed to maximise viewership across continents, which means clever windowing. Group-stage kick-offs are clustered in four main slots:

• 12:00 ET — early window, mostly Mexico and Central US venues (typical for European prime time)
• 15:00 ET — afternoon Eastern US window, ideal for Latin American audiences
• 18:00 ET — early-evening Eastern slot
• 21:00 ET — late prime-time window, mostly West Coast venues

Knockout matches generally kick off in the 12:00–15:00 ET window with a single late game where bracket demands require it. The final itself begins at 3:00pm Eastern on Sunday 19 July, which translates to 8pm UK time, 9pm Central European Time, and 5am Monday morning in Tokyo.

Marquee group-stage match-ups by date

A handful of group games stand out on the schedule even before the bracket takes shape:

• 13 June: Brazil vs Morocco — rematch of the 2022 quarter-final story
• 14 June: Argentina vs Austria — title defence begins
• 15 June: Spain vs Cabo Verde — World Cup debut for the smallest African qualifier
• 16 June: France vs Senegal — two World Cup semi-finalists from recent editions
• 17 June: England vs Croatia — 2018 semi-final revisited
• 20 June: Tunisia vs Japan in Monterrey — historic 1,000th match in World Cup history
• 24 June: Portugal vs Colombia — Ronaldo's last group stage

Time-zone planning for international fans

The fifa world cup 2026 schedule spans GMT-8 (Vancouver, Los Angeles) to GMT-5 (Toronto, New York). For UK viewers, that means most kick-offs sit between 5pm and midnight BST — the most fan-friendly window of any North American tournament since 1994. European viewers from Berlin to Madrid will see matches between 6pm and 1am local. Asian fans face the old early-morning challenge: most games kick off between 1am and 9am in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney.

The world cup 2026 dates also overlap with the climax of several domestic leagues. Major League Soccer pauses its season for the duration, while pre-season for European clubs is delayed by roughly three weeks to accommodate the extended tournament.

Where to find live updates

Once the tournament starts, FIFA's official app pushes live timing updates, and broadcasters carry the canonical match clock. Our companion pages walk through the bracket as it fills in, the groups and standings as they form, and the streaming options in your country. For pre-match price moves and predictions, the odds page updates several times daily.