We’re finally about to learn some pieces of the 2026 World Cup schedule

The journey to the 2026 FIFA World Cup will see some long-awaited major progress on Sunday, when FIFA announces a framework of the tournament schedule.

In theory, the announcement will include which of the tournament’s 104 games Philadelphia will host, including rounds and dates, and which will go to the 15 other cities involved.

FIFA has also said we’ll learn where the U.S. and fellow home teams Canada and Mexico will play their group games, and where the final will be. The U.S. is expected to start out west and move east, while the final is expected to go to either East Rutherford, N.J., or Arlington, Texas.

But all we really know right now is that the announcement will be made on a TV show at 3 p.m., with a national broadcast on Fox and Telemundo.

Right up until then, the host cities will have no idea what’s coming.

“FIFA is not providing any of the host cities with any advance notice,” Philadelphia host committee executive Meg Kane said. “So we will find out our schedule on live television with the rest of the world on Sunday.”

An outsider to the process might find that surprising. But it’s the truth, and a separate source outside of Philadelphia confirmed it.

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Organizers here certainly know what they’d like to get: seven or eight games at Lincoln Financial Field, capped off with a quarterfinal — ideally with the U.S. in it.

“Of course, this is FIFA’s call, and we will be ready and prepared to host as many or as few matches as FIFA needs us to,” Kane said. “But our hope is that we’re going to maximize our time in the tournament. ... We feel very well positioned to be considered for a quarterfinal.”

FIFA can’t divide the 104 games perfectly evenly across the 16 host cities, because the average is 6.5. But it’s safe to say that if Philadelphia gets eight, that would be a successful haul.

How would that compare with past World Cups? It’s not fair to measure, because this will be the first World Cup with 48 teams. The previous seven men’s World Cups had 32 teams, and last year’s women’s World Cup was the first with 32.

Every 32-team World Cup except one had at most 12 host cities. The exception was Japan-South Korea 2002, which had 20, with each city getting three (mostly) or four games. It might not be coincidental that it’s the only men’s World Cup to date played in multiple countries.

As for the other work local organizers are doing, Kane revealed that an earlier plan to have the city’s fan fest site at the forthcoming park at Penn’s Landing over I-95 is out because construction won’t be done until 2028.

“We have several conversations that are underway around potential venues,” Kane said. “FIFA is making some adjustments to what the host cities’ oversight of the fan fests will be, so we are working with FIFA to understand those changes, in addition to working with the city on identifying the right venue for that.”

Kane said she’s hopeful to have more details in the late spring or early summer, by which time new mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration will be fully settled in.

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Before then, a FIFA delegation will be in town later this month for the latest set of planning meetings. One of their talking points will be the scale of the security perimeter in the sports complex, and how that intersects with Major League Baseball’s plan for the All-Star Game in July 2026 at Citizens Bank Park.

A year ago, the theory was the perimeter wouldn’t cross Pattison Avenue, leaving the ballpark and adjacent parking lots alone. But at that time, the expectation was that the group stage would have 16 groups of three teams each. FIFA realized how problematic that could be last March, and changed the format to 12 groups of the traditional four teams each.

But that decision grew the tournament from 80 games to 104 and grew the tournament’s calendar by a week. With the World Cup final provisionally set for July 19, a quarterfinal in Philadelphia would be around July 12, instead of closer to July 4.

If FIFA’s perimeter doesn’t come down until after the 12th, that could affect the date of the All-Star Game. But then again, so could the fact that baseball’s longtime broadcast partner Fox also has the World Cup. The network wouldn’t want the All-Star Game on the same night as World Cup action.

“The question around what that perimeter looks like, and certainly matchday versus non-matchday, is part of the conversations that we continue to have with FIFA,” Kane said. “And we are certainly working with the Convention and Visitors Bureau and Major League Baseball because we recognize that the sports complex is really going to be the epicenter of sports in the summer of ‘26 ... We will obviously work to accommodate both.”

There will also be a FIFA delegation in the U.S. at the end of this month to consider the U.S.-Mexico joint bid for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The bid book proposed the same cities in the countries that will host in 2026, but U.S. Soccer told FIFA that wasn’t a firm commitment to picking those cities.

Kane said she had no update on whether Philadelphia will end up involved. FIFA will pick the 2027 host(s) in May, just over three years before the tournament kicks off. That’s a far shorter runway than FIFA has given recent men’s tournaments, a point where the governing body has been widely criticized.

The other bids for 2027 are Brazil and a joint bid of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium.