Exactly four years after Argentina’s triumph over France in Qatar, a new FIFA World Cup cycle is set to kick off today as the torch is lit for the commencement of the 2026 edition.
Mexico, Canada and the United States of America are jointly hosting the championship.
Characteristically, it will be preceded by a lively opening ceremony expected to thrill thousands of fans across the globe.
The latest edition of the world’s biggest sporting event – the 23rd in the series, kicks off with Mexico and South Africa rewriting the 2010 edition script when South Africa hosted the Mundial.
For the next one and a half months, the attention of football fans across the globe will be on the first edition of the expanded tournament which will feature 104 games.
And Ghana’s Black Stars will be among the top football nations that would be competing for glory at this stage of football where the country can only boast of a quarter final berth.
Officially expanded to feature 48 teams, with 16 more teams added to the previous 32, this would be the largest edition in the tournament’s history.
Qualification to the showpiece has been a long and tortuous journey that witnessed some top performers like Italy, Denmark, Hungary, Cameroon, Chile, Poland and Nigeria crumble.
In their places, fans would see some new faces like Curacao and Panama making their maiden World Cup appearances.
The expansion comes with a new format that would see the 48 teams divided into 12 groups of four to play at the group stage.
That would be followed by a brand-new Round of 32 stage which has been introduced.
At this stage, the top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams would advance to the knockout stage.
The matches are expected to be played across 11 venues in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada with Mexico hosting 13 matches, including the opener in Mexico City today, against South Africa and three in the knockout rounds.
Canada will also host 13 matches with the first coming between them and Bosnia-Herzegovina tomorrow in Toronto and three more in the knockout round.
The remaining 78 will be in the U.S. starting when the USA takes on Paraguay tomorrow in Los Angeles, and including all the matches in the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final round at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
In all, a record 1,248 players will appear on the rosters of the 42 countries, representing 449 domestic clubs in 71 countries.
Out of this figure, 357 of them come with World Cup experience, along with 891 first-timers.
Ahead of the first whistle, countries like Spain, Brazil, Argentina, and France have been tipped as sides to get closer to the top prize with others including Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal given an outside chance.
Statistics
England leads the way with 200 players on rosters who are based there at club level. Germany is second with 109, followed by France (86), Spain (86), Italy (71) and Saudi Arabia (49). Major League Soccer will be represented by a record 44 active players at the World Cup with 103 of the players having some experience in MLS.
Manchester City of the Premier League has the most players of any club with a record of 19, followed by Bayern Munich with 18, Champions League finalists, Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, 16 and Barcelona with 15.
Portugal star, Cristiano Ronaldo, leads all players in the tournament with 226 caps — the most ever by a single men’s player — as he is set to join Argentina’s Lionel Messi as the only players to appear in six World Cups.
Ronaldo is the only player to score in five World Cups with eight goals in his 22 matches.
Messi comes as the most career World Cup matches with 26 and needs two appearances to become the third man with at least 200 caps (Bader Al-Mutawa, Kuwait, also has more 200 appearances in international play). Croatia’s Luka Modric is three short of joining that group.
Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa is on a World Cup roster for the sixth time but didn’t appear in a game in 2006 or 2010.
Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 career goals for Germany could be in jeopardy in this year’s edition. Messi comes into the tournament with 13 career goals, trailing only Klose, Brazilian star Ronaldo (15) and Gerd Muller (14). France’s Kylian Mbappe is also in range having scored 12 goals combined in the past two tournaments.
The statistics also show that only eight countries have won the World Cup with six of those teams winning multiple titles led by Brazil’s five. The only first-time winners in the last 11 Cups came in 1998 when France won the first of its two titles and in 2010 when Spain won it all.
Again, only two countries have defended the title with Pele leading Brazil to the titles in 1958 and ’62, and Italy winning it in 1934 and ’38. Three other defending champions made it to the title game, including France four years ago before losing to Argentina.
France will try to become the third country to make it to three straight finals after winning it in 2018 and losing in 2022. West Germany lost the final in 1982 and ’86 before beating Argentina in 1990. Brazil had wins in 1994 and 2002, but was also in the finals when they lost the title to France in 1998.
Brazil is the only country to appear in all 23 editions of the World Cup starting in 1930 in Uruguay. The Brazilians also lead all countries with 76 wins, 237 goals and a plus-129 goal differential.
BY ANDREW NORTEY
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