The inaugural 48-team World Cup is a “natural evolution” for the game, driving the effort to make football truly global and raise standards, FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger said ahead of Friday’s Final Draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ in Washington DC as FIFA’s Chief Football Officer Jill Ellis stressed the “transformational” impact of the tournament. The increase from the 32-team format, which has been used since France 1998, will see at least four teams make their debut in the tournament, and gave added incentive to the exciting qualification campaigns which will conclude with play-offs in March. Mr Wenger, the former Arsenal manager, believes that the expansion provides increased opportunities and stimulates growth while not impacting the quality of the football that will be on show.

“It's a natural evolution. I think we want to make football global all over the world. And if you look at the evolution (from) 1930, in 2030, the next (FIFA) World Cup will be 100 years since the (FIFA) World Cup [existed],” he told a media conference. “We started with 13 teams, after, 16, until in ’82 was the first time with 24 teams. ’98 (was) the first time with 32 teams. So, the evolution is (that) always more teams want to participate. And now I believe that 48 teams is the right number,” added the Frenchman. “It’s (just) less than 25% of 211 countries who are affiliated to FIFA. That means one team out of four has a chance to participate. That means still 75% of the teams are not there. And I count in there China, India – that's 3 billion people, you know,” continued Mr. Wenger. Six of the 48 teams at FIFA World Cup 2026 have yet to be determined, and will only be known in March 2026. Four will come from the 16-team European Play-Offs, which will be contested by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, North Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine and Wales. The other two spots will be contested by six teams - Bolivia, Congo DR, Iraq, Jamaica, New Caledonia and Suriname - at the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Play-Off Tournament.

Mr Wenger noted that the recent FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025™ also featured 48 nations for the first time and that it had answered any concerns about the gap between teams being too wide. “In fact, we realised that the difference, quality-wise, between the different countries has been reduced. Why? Because the message we give out and the work we do is to educate people, and education is correlated with success,” said Mr Wenger. “And all the countries in the world now do a lot of education work and create new players, and that’s why we see new teams at the (FIFA) World Cup, and that’s why, as well, I think it’s normal to have 48 teams at the (FIFA) World Cup” Cabo Verde, Curaçao, Jordan and Uzbekistan set to make World Cup debuts and Mr Wenger said that nations were garnering the rewards for systematic work in developing their game. “If you look at Uzbekistan, I know that the job they do at youth level is fantastic, the infrastructure they’ve built is unbelievable. Jordan as well, they were one of the surprising teams in the (AFC) Asian Cup, you know? It’s no coincidence. We have made a world study, and we have realised that it’s a 100% correlation with the quality of the youth work and the success in the top team,” he said. The tournament will be held at 16 venues in the United States, Mexico and Canada and former US Women’s National Team head coach Jill Ellis, who won FIFA Women’s World Cup™ titles in 2015 and 2019, believes there will be a huge impact on North American football.

“The (FIFA) World Cup 1994, (was) transformational for the landscape of US Soccer. I think it was the sort of genesis of MLS, which came around two years later,” she said. “You know, 10 teams when it started and launched. People need heroes. So, not only did it inspire us with the players, it also, I think, laid an infrastructure. Later we hosted in 1999 the (FIFA) Women's World Cup. And some iconic moments come from that. “So, I think the power of the (FIFA) World Cup is (that) you have the outside world watching, but what does it do to the local fan? What does it do to the player, the people that have never seen the game before? And I think going to this one next summer, the fanbase will increase, the attention will increase. As a coach, the participation levels are really important because you want kids to pick up the ball and go out and be inspired. But I think in terms of what it does – and it draws the attention and creates the next generation – that's the most important thing [about] the legacy of a (FIFA) World Cup.”