Man, I have to admit something embarrassing. For the longest time—like since 2018 when they first announced it—I had this idea cemented in my head: the FIFA World Cup 2026 was going to be held in the USA. Just the USA. Period. That was my baseline knowledge. I locked that fact away and didn’t think about it again.
The whole thing came up last week. I was talking to my buddy, Mark, about travel planning for 2026, joking about how we should just rent an RV and follow the whole thing coast-to-coast inside the US. I started mapping out cities in California and Texas. He stopped me dead in my tracks. He just sort of chuckled and said, “You planning on heading to Toronto or Mexico City too, or are you just sticking to the States?”
I stopped typing. I think I blinked three times. My first thought? He was pulling my leg. A big tournament like that, spanning three whole countries? That sounded like a logistic nightmare they’d never sign off on. I told him he was wrong, completely wrong, and that it was an American show. He told me to just go look it up. The sheer confidence in his voice annoyed me, so I had to prove him wrong.
The Scramble to Verify
I immediately minimized our chat window and opened a fresh browser tab. My fingers hammered out the question: “Is FIFA World Cup 2026 only in USA?”
The first few search results hit me like a splash of cold water. I scanned the headlines, moving past the clickbait articles right to the official sounding summaries. Every single one of them confirmed Mark’s annoying knowledge.
I had to dig deeper just to be sure this wasn’t some new development I missed. I landed on the official FIFA summary page. This wasn’t just some casual partnership. This was called the United Bid, and it won ages ago.
Here’s what I immediately jotted down in my notes:
- It’s officially the first time three nations will co-host the tournament.
- The total number of games is insane—104 matches, up from the usual 64.
- The bulk of the tournament is indeed in the US, but it’s definitely not exclusive.
Then I started mapping out the cities, trying to figure out how many venues were where. I scrolled through the list, feeling stupider with every city that wasn’t American.
The cities selected are wild. You’ve got Seattle, Boston, Miami, Philly, Los Angeles, and all those big US hubs. But then, right there in the middle of the list, I spotted Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City. And up north, I saw Vancouver and Toronto. I realized I had been living under a rock, casually planning a purely domestic trip for a massive international event spanning an entire continent.
How I Missed the Obvious
This is the part where I have to explain myself. How does someone who follows sports and keeps up with general world events completely miss a major piece of news about one of the biggest sporting events on the planet? Especially news that’s been public for years?
The truth is, I haven’t been paying attention to anything outside my house for about 18 months. I mean anything.
A little while ago, I decided I was going to remodel my basement. Not just a simple coat of paint, no. I got this crazy idea that I was going to turn it into a fully dedicated, noise-dampened media cave. But I didn’t want to hire anyone. I figured, “How hard can running some specialized wiring and drywall be?”
It was harder than I thought. Way, way harder.
From the moment I ripped out the first sheet of plasterboard, my life ceased to be about current events or global politics. It was about 14-gauge wiring, vapor barriers, acoustic foam, and trying to figure out why the breaker kept tripping every time I used my rotary saw.
I was in the basement or the garage every single evening and all weekend. My phone was constantly set to Do Not Disturb because the vibration would knock screws off my workbench. I shunned sunlight and conversation. My social media feed became 90% contractor supply ads and YouTube tutorials on blending joint compound, and 10% arguments about why my tools were insufficient for the job.
I completely ignored the whole 2022 World Cup because I was wrestling with installing recessed lighting that looked professional. My wife had to bring me meals down to the workbench. I was literally isolated from normal human society. I didn’t know the price of gas, who won the local election, or apparently, the basic geographic structure of the next major international soccer tournament.
Just last month, my neighbor sold his house and moved to Florida. I didn’t even know it was listed. I only found out because a new guy was mowing the lawn, and I finally crawled out of the basement long enough to ask who he was.
So when Mark asked if I was going to Toronto, my mind was still stuck in 2021, the last time I really looked at global news before I decided to commit architectural suicide in my own home. My investigation confirmed it: the tournament is spread across the entire continent, a genuine North American effort.
It was a truly humbling search. I proved Mark right, but hey, at least I learned something new, even if the reason I didn’t know it in the first place is that I was too busy arguing with a bag of Quickrete in my garage.
Now, I need to update my travel map. Looks like I need to factor in passport renewals and figuring out the logistics of crossing three different borders multiple times. Thanks, basement project. Now I have a headache for 2026 planning.