A new year and a new FIFA World Cup cycle are upon us with many questions remaining on what the second half of the FIFA window and World Cup Qualifying will look like along with what the 2026 FIFA World Cup expanded 48-team format will be.
On December 4th during the Round of 16 knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup FIFA’s chief of global football, Arsene Wenger said that the format for the 2026 World Cup hadn’t been officially decided on. It was originally reported that the format for the 2026 World Cup was going to be 16 Groups of 3 with the top two teams in each group advancing to a round of 32 knockout stage.