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Picture Copyright Kirby Lee for USA TODAY Sports activities
The 2026 Males’s World Cup schedule was introduced on Sunday, with the large reveal that the larger New York space — MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to place some respect on the title — will host the event’s ultimate after hypothesis that larger Dallas may stage the large recreation.
Girls’s soccer followers ought to make notice of Sunday’s announcement, too. The USA and Mexico have collectively bid on the 2027 Girls’s World Cup (excluding 2026 co-host Canada, which staged the 2015 Girls’s World Cup). The U.S.-Mexico joint bid is up towards a bid from Brazil, which hosted the 2014 males’s event, and a joint bid by Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
Bid books for each of the three competing entities revealed hypothetical host cities and stadiums, however Sunday’s official schedule for the 2026 Males’s World Cup offers tangible perception into how the U.S., Mexico and FIFA may stage a Girls’s World Cup the next 12 months if the bid is chosen.
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Regionalization is a given
The USA is huge sufficient. Including Mexico and Canada to the internet hosting territory solely compounds problems with lengthy journey for groups. The schedule for the 2026 Males’s World Cup schedule addressed this by creating three regional clusters of cities: East, Central and West. Organizers aimed to reduce journey as a lot as attainable within the group stage and principally adhere to these areas.
Any future World Cup within the U.S. would do the identical. The 2023 Women’s World Cup informally utilized this, with 4 teams taking part in strictly in New Zealand and 4 teams taking part in strictly in Australia. Detracting from these regionalization efforts was Australia’s addition of Perth as the one host metropolis on the nation’s West Coast. It might be like holding a U.S. occasion completely on the East Coast however then including Los Angeles for just a few unfortunate groups to shuttle to and from. Nonetheless, the overall concept was in place.
A potential 2027 Girls’s World Cup ought to take the same strategy — albeit with fewer host cities and fewer groups than the previous males’s version. The 2026 Males’s World Cup will characteristic 48 groups for the primary time; the 2027 Girls’s World Cup, wherever it’s performed, will characteristic 32 groups. Canada additionally wouldn’t be internet hosting any video games, as it is going to host in 2026.
Large stadiums are a go
The U.S.-Mexico joint bid states that organizers “imagine we are able to promote out high-capacity stadiums for each match, with many of the venues over 65,000.” Doubtless, that will imply using most of the similar venues already lined up for the 12 months prior. There are legitimate considerations about taxing sources for native governments in back-to-back years however there’s a stronger argument to be made for turning round a 12 months later and replicating success in the identical stadium and metropolis, with a confirmed plan. That might attraction to FIFA, as effectively.
All however two of the host cities detailed within the 2027 bid e book are already confirmed hosts for males’s video games in 2026, the exceptions each being in Mexico: León, the place the stadium holds 32,800, and Querétaro, the place the stadium holds 34,130 followers. Once more, the cities are usually not finalized, however they’re included strategically.
The 2027 Girls’s World Cup schedule will look totally different, with fewer groups and video games than the 2026 males’s version, however the host cities may find yourself being fairly related. If so, anticipate most video games within the U.S. if the bid wins, with Estadio Azteca in Mexico Metropolis internet hosting the opening match, simply as they may in 2026.
The place would the U.S. play?
Right here’s the place issues get fascinating. The U.S. males are slated to open the 2026 World Cup in Los Angeles, then play in Seattle and return to LA to finish the group stage. The ultimate is in New Jersey and the pathway there may put the Individuals in a number of different cities alongside the best way. Like with the pathway drawn up for New Zealand final 12 months, that’s probably wishful pondering, however it is very important remember for the U.S. girls. As shaky because the U.S. girls checked out final 12 months’s World Cup, they may undoubtedly nonetheless be contenders in 2027 and could possibly be favorites as co-hosts (particularly if given new life below impending head coach Emma Hayes).
In 1999, when the U.S. hosted the Girls’s World Cup for the primary time, event organizers laid out a plan that put the Individuals on a nationwide tour meant to develop the sport. It did simply that; 1999 left an indelible influence on soccer in america and ladies’s sports activities globally. The ladies’s recreation has advanced since, and there’s no want to copy that grueling schedule.
The U.S. opened the 1999 World Cup in East Rutherford, N.J. (within the outdated Giants Stadium) after which traveled to Chicago and larger Boston (Foxborough) to complete up the group. The Individuals received the group as anticipated and proceeded to win a quarterfinal in larger Washington, D.C., earlier than flying west for a semifinal within the Bay Space and the ultimate in larger LA.
A 2027 World Cup would possibly find yourself laying out the same path for the U.S., however journey must be of larger concern than it was in 1999. There are additionally twice as many groups within the event now (there have been 16 in 1999) and thus there’s a spherical of 16 to play earlier than the quarterfinals. The U.S. would probably play on one of many coasts and their pathway to the ultimate would permit them to step by step transfer to the opposite facet of the nation, stopping within the central area for the spherical of 16 and presumably a quarterfinal — assuming every little thing goes to plan, which isn’t a given.
That each one results in one different large query…
The place would a ultimate be performed?
FIFA is aware of the worth of the New York Metropolis metro space and taking part in a potential 2027 World Cup ultimate there makes a whole lot of sense. It’s arguably essentially the most well-known metropolis on the planet, with big media alternatives and a melting pot of range. It is usually a barely friendlier time zone for Europe, particularly. All these arguments are an identical to these made across the 2026 choice, which reportedly got here right down to New York/New Jersey and Dallas — with LA serving as a wild card.
Two issues set the 2027 event aside, ought to it’s hosted by the U.S. and Mexico. Firstly, Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones would probably be hungry to win spherical two of any attainable battle for the golden ticket that may be a World Cup ultimate. Politics run rife in these choices, an issue to which the Girls’s World Cup shouldn’t be immune. One other World Cup a 12 months later? It’s protected to guess Jones would need that ultimate, too.
Then, there may be historical past. The 1999 World Cup ended on the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., with Brandi Chastain ripping off her jersey to have fun the game-winning penalty kick. There’s historical past within the Girls’s World Cup ultimate being in Southern California, which is a hotbed for ladies’s soccer on the youth and now skilled ranges.
Would the Rose Bowl suffice as a contemporary venue in 2027? The historical past is there and, notably, the U.S.-Mexico joint bid lists the Rose Bowl slightly than the extra fashionable SoFi Stadium, which shall be utilized in 2026. Once more, that bid e book doesn’t recommend venue choices are ultimate, however it may point out how organizers are pondering. A ultimate on the Rose Bowl can be a play on nostalgia — and what a media circus and narrative that will be if the U.S. discovered its method again. The glory of ’99, Half 2. FIFA would love that, too.
Now what?
A delegation of FIFA officers started inspection visits for the bidding nations on Jan. 30. The U.S.-Mexico inspections will happen from Feb. 26–29.
Commercially, the joint bid makes a ton of sense for FIFA president Gianni Infantino in his quest to attain equal pay below his tenure. The U.S.-Mexico joint bid leads off with this energy, claiming it may draw 4.5 million followers to stadiums and generate $3 billion in whole income. Internet hosting expertise and venues even have robust attraction.
Politics, nonetheless, will as soon as once more play a consider host choice. So, sure, it’s very untimely to be discussing a schedule when it’s unclear the place the World Cup will even be performed, however you possibly can guess that these are all elements within the choice that shall be made by the FIFA Congress on Could 17 in Bangkok, Thailand.
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