The 2026 World Cup is set to take North America by storm with an ambitious expansion, featuring 48 teams across 16 cities in three countries with diverse climates and elevations.
To ensure the best playing surfaces, FIFA has teamed up with turf experts from the University of Tennessee and Michigan State University to perfect the fields.
As the tournament nears, with matches kicking off in under two years across the U.S., Mexico and Canada, FIFA is determined that the pitch will be a standout success, avoiding the controversies that plagued earlier tournaments.
The Copa America, organized every four years by South American football body CONMEBOL, was plagued by problems with unstable surfaces.
Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez called the grass field that replaced artificial turf a "disaster" after beating Canada in the opener on June 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Criticism continued from other teams and coaches early in the tournament.
"FIFA has high expectations and demands that we can’t have any failures,” John Sorochan, professor of turfgrass science and management at Tennessee, said recently in a telephone interview. "That's why they're supporting so much research and preparation to avoid the issues seen at Copa America and the embarrassment faced by CONMEBOL.”
Like at this year’s Copa America, some football stadiums – including those with roofs – will host games at the next World Cup.
Sorochan, along with his mentor and former professor at Michigan State, Trey Rogers, addressed a similar challenge three decades ago when the World Cup first visited the United States in 1994 and games were played indoors at the Pontiac Silverdome in suburban Detroit.
"One of the easiest decisions I have made around this tournament so far was the partnering of UT and MSU universities,” said Alan Ferguson, FIFA 2026 director of infrastructure and technical services. "Both already had world-leading reputations, led by world-leading turf professors. I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel – it was already here.”
Climate change may present an additional challenge, especially with games stretching from Mexico to Canada, and turf experts are considering several varieties of surfaces to address it.
"While new varieties of grasses have not been bred specifically for the World Cup's challenges, turfgrass breeding efforts over the past 20 years have produced new grass varieties that improve heat, drought, disease, and wear tolerance,” Sorochan said earlier this week.
Tennessee has created what it calls a shade house to replicate an indoor stadium. Michigan State, meanwhile, has a 23,000-square-foot slab of asphalt to develop the concept of laying turf grown on plastic instead of soil on stadium surfaces.
Rogers and his team test how the natural surface responds to a ball bouncing and when cleats make contact.
A couple of months ago at Copa America, Martinez said the ball jumped off the field as if it were a springboard.
In two years, Rogers said the goal is to not hear anyone discussing the playing surface at the World Cup.
"If nobody mentions the field," he said, "we know we’ve done our job.”
