The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins Thursday in Mexico City, and nothing about this tournament is small. 104 matches across three countries, 48 teams for the first time in history, and not one but three opening ceremonies headlined by Shakira, Burna Boy, Katy Perry, LISA, and a roster of global acts that reads like a festival lineup.
This is FIFA’s most ambitious spectacle yet, and the opening week will set the tone for a month of football that stretches from the Estadio Azteca to MetLife Stadium.
Three Ceremonies, Three Countries
FIFA broke with tradition by staging separate opening celebrations in each host nation rather than a single ceremony. ESPN confirmed that Mexico City goes first on Thursday, June 11 at 11:30 a.m. local time, with Shakira and Burna Boy performing their official tournament anthem “Dai Dai” at Estadio Azteca before Mexico faces South Africa in the opening fixture.
Toronto follows on Friday, June 12 at 1:30 p.m. ET, and Los Angeles closes the trilogy the same evening at 4:30 p.m. PT. Each ceremony features its own headliners: the Toronto show includes Michael Buble and Alanis Morissette, while Los Angeles brings Katy Perry, Future, and Anitta.
The lineup runs deep. The Olympics’ official coverage detailed that J Balvin, Tyla, LISA from BLACKPINK, Mana, Rema, Alejandro Fernandez, Belinda, Danny Ocean, Lila Downs, and Los Angeles Azules round out the performer list across the three venues. Shakira is also set to co-headline the halftime show at the World Cup final alongside Madonna and BTS.
What Is Actually Different About This World Cup
The expanded 48-team format is the headline change, but it cascades into everything. The group stage now features 12 groups of four instead of eight, and 104 total matches represent a 52-match increase over the 2022 Qatar tournament. The schedule spans June 11 to July 19, making this the longest World Cup in modern history.
Hosting across three nations (Mexico, the United States, and Canada) adds a logistical complexity FIFA has never attempted. Teams and fans will cross international borders between matches. Time zones range from Eastern to Pacific. Television scheduling alone is a puzzle that broadcasters have been working on for two years.
Mexico’s opening match against South Africa at the Azteca is a deliberate callback to the 2010 tournament, when those same teams played the first game of the South Africa World Cup. The group also includes South Korea and Czechia.
The Business of the Biggest World Cup
FIFA projected $11 billion in total revenue from the 2026 cycle, driven by the expanded match count, the North American advertising market, and sponsorship deals that dwarf anything from Qatar. The three-country hosting model also distributes infrastructure costs across economies that already have the stadiums, transit networks, and hospitality capacity to absorb the load, a sharp contrast to the from-scratch construction required in Qatar and, before that, Brazil.
For the U.S. specifically, this is the first time the country has hosted a men’s World Cup since 1994. The growth of MLS, the explosion of Liga MX viewership in the American market, and the success of the 2026 qualifying cycle in generating mainstream media attention have created a different landscape than the one FIFA found three decades ago. Soccer is no longer an emerging sport in the U.S. market. It is a commercial force with a built-in audience, and this tournament will be the proof point.
What to Watch This Week
Thursday’s Mexico vs. South Africa match is the only game on June 11. The full group stage runs through June 27, with the round of 16 beginning June 28. The knockout rounds build toward a final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19.
The three opening ceremonies land in a 30-hour window across Thursday and Friday, and if Shakira’s track record at World Cups is any guide, “Dai Dai” will be inescapable by the weekend. For the 5 billion people FIFA expects to tune in at some point during the tournament, the spectacle starts in three days.