The sports calendar in 2026 will be crowded and loud, but nothing will come close to the gravitational pull of football’s biggest and boldest World Cup, a tournament so expanded it is set to swallow almost everything in its path.
The first-ever 48-team men’s World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, will be the centerpiece of a year already bursting with elite events. With 104 matches and a final scheduled for New Jersey, it promises scale without precedent – and controversy to match.
Crowded year, led by the Games
The year begins on snow and ice. Italy takes center stage in February with the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics from Feb. 6-22, followed by the Paralympics from March 6-15.
The Games arrive with a ready-made storyline in Lindsey Vonn, whose comeback at 41 – capped by becoming the oldest winner of a World Cup ski race – has reignited interest and nostalgia in a sport that thrives on legacy.
Cricket briefly shares the stage as the men’s T20 World Cup unfolds in India and Sri Lanka, overlapping with the Winter Games.
But football soon reasserts its dominance.
March brings World Cup playoffs to decide the final six qualifiers, with heavyweight absentees from recent tournaments – notably four-time champions Italy – fighting to avoid another humiliation.
Ukraine, Sweden, Wales, Bolivia, Iraq and Jamaica are also among those chasing a seat at the table.
The appetite is already clear. FIFA said it received five million ticket requests in the first 24 hours of its latest sales phase, despite fierce criticism from supporters over pricing.
Fans from more than 200 countries and territories applied, reinforcing FIFA’s belief that demand for the game remains limitless.
Beyond competition, 2026 will also bring governance decisions with wide-reaching implications.
The International Olympic Committee is expected to rule in the first quarter of the year on transgender athlete eligibility, aiming to establish a single global framework to protect the female category – a debate likely to echo well beyond Olympic sport.
Expansion, power and consequences
After the Champions League final in Budapest on May 30, attention will narrow almost entirely to the World Cup.
Training camps will open, leagues will fade into the background and, for six to eight weeks, everything from Formula One to the Sinner-Alcaraz tennis rivalry and the Tour de France will struggle to command space.
With U.S. President Donald Trump a vocal supporter, the tournament is also set to dominate political discourse.
Four days after the World Cup final, the Commonwealth Games begin in Glasgow on July 23, a scaled-down edition rescued at short notice after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew in 2023.
Once a pillar of the sporting calendar, the event now faces questions over its relevance and long-term future.
September brings something new: athletics’ Ultimate Championships in Budapest.
Designed as a three-day "best of the best” event with minimal qualifying rounds, organizers hope it can fill a gap by giving the sport an annual global showcase.
Yet all roads still lead back to football.
FIFA will point to recent evidence to justify its expansionist vision, including the newly enlarged Club World Cup, which it labeled a success after drawing 2.4 million fans in the United States.
Chelsea’s win over Paris Saint-Germain in front of 81,000 spectators was the headline moment, but lopsided results – including heavy defeats for Auckland City and Al Ain – raised familiar questions about competitive balance.
Similar mismatches are inevitable at a 48-team World Cup.
The scale will test everyone involved. Players’ unions, led by FIFPro, have already warned of rising injury rates and burnout as the calendar continues to swell.
Supporters and media, too, will feel the strain across a tournament longer and denser than any before it.
Familiar giants, one last dance
Once debutants such as Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan have their moment, the tournament is likely to settle into familiar territory.
Defending champions Argentina, along with France, Brazil, Spain, England and Germany, are expected to crowd the business end in the usual fight for the crown.
One potential meeting would transcend the tournament itself.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – the defining players of their generation – have never faced each other at a World Cup.
If the draw and results align, they could finally meet in a quarterfinal in Kansas City, with Messi aged 39 and Ronaldo 41, in what would feel like a last dance on the game’s grandest stage.
Neither showed signs of slowing in 2025.
Ronaldo continued scoring freely for Al-Nassr and helped Portugal lift the UEFA Nations League, while Messi led Inter Miami to the MLS Cup, adding the league’s MVP award and Golden Boot.
Away from Europe’s traditional centers, new stars have flourished.
Ousmane Dembele emerged as the game’s standout figure, winning the Ballon d’Or and FIFA Player of the Year after scoring 33 goals in 49 matches to drive PSG to a treble, capped by a ruthless 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan in the Champions League final.
He edged Barcelona’s teenage sensation Lamine Yamal and Mohamed Salah, whose 47 goal contributions powered Liverpool to the Premier League title in Arne Slot’s first season.
In the women’s game, Aitana Bonmati claimed a third consecutive Ballon d’Or Feminin, even as Spain suffered Euro 2025 final heartbreak against England on penalties.
The tournament underlined the sport’s rapid growth, with record crowds and FIFA confirming plans for an expanded Women’s Club World Cup from 2027.
At club level, UEFA’s revamped 36-team Champions League silenced many doubters, with 27 clubs still in contention on the final matchday.
The format ultimately favored the elite, none more so than PSG, who stumbled early before surging through the knockout rounds.
Financial power remains concentrated in England.
Six Premier League clubs qualified for the 2025-26 Champions League, and the league’s teams spent a combined 3 billion pounds ($4.05 billion) in the summer transfer window – more than Germany, Spain, France and Italy combined.
Technology continues to shape the game.
FIFA accelerated the rollout of semi-automated offside detection in 2025, and the 2026 World Cup will be its most technologically advanced yet.
Even the new Trionda match ball will carry an AI chip, designed to assist officials with split-second decisions.