THE 2026 World Cup final is now set to be played indoors — after Fifa chiefs agreed Dallas’ AT&T Stadium will host the biggest game in football.
Tournament chiefs will confirm more details about the first 48-team World Cup next month following a meeting in London this week.
SunSport has been told that the home of the Dallas Cowboys has beaten New York’s MetLife Stadium to host the showpiece.
The Texan city will also be the main base for Fifa — rather than the other options of New York and Miami.
Fifa is aiming to complete the 72-game group phase in 15 days, meaning up to five matches back to back in the first two rounds of games, with all teams guaranteed four days’ rest.
But it remains unclear if identifying the eight third-place sides to go through to the knock-out phase will see Fifa split the tournament into two distinct halves to ensure sufficient rest for all teams.
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The revised World Cup will feature a whopping 104 matches.
The controversial and drastic change to the tournament format – which will be held in Mexico and Canada as well as the USA– was revealed by Fifa chiefs.
A statement said: “Based on a thorough review that considered sporting integrity, player welfare, team travel, commercial and sporting attractiveness, as well as team and fan experience, the Fifa Council unanimously approved the proposed amendment to the Fifa World Cup 2026 competition format from 16 groups of three to 12 groups of four.
With the top two and eight best third-placed teams progressing to a round of 32.
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“The revised format mitigates the risk of collusion and ensures that all the teams play a minimum of three matches, while providing balanced rest time between competing teams.”
After the confirmation of the hosts for the competition, Fifa bigwig Gianni Infantino said: “Congratulations for the qualification of Mexico, Canada and the United States, who already qualified for this [FIFA] World Cup last week through the FIFA Council’s decision.
“But in addition to those three, three more Concacaf teams will qualify for sure, and possibly even five.”
President Infantino added: “This next World Cup in North America is going to be the World Cup of America.
“It’s going to be the World Cup that will change the balance in football, because we are going to focus our work in this part of the world.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
