{"id":2037,"date":"2025-11-20T01:35:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T01:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=2037"},"modified":"2025-11-20T01:35:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T01:35:16","slug":"2026-world-cup-mexico-to-host-intercontinental-playoffs-in-guadalajara-monterrey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=2037","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Cup: Mexico to Host Intercontinental Playoffs in Guadalajara, Monterrey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9>Mexican cities Guadalajara and Monterrey will host the intercontinental playoff tournament for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9>The tournament starts March 23 and will consist of six teams from five confederations fighting for two spots at next summer&#8217;s World Cup being hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9>&#8220;These iconic stadiums are the perfect stages for what promises to be a thrilling event filled with passion, drama and excitement,&#8221; FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9>The Guadalajara and Monterrey stadiums will also host World Cup matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9>The six nations are Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jamaica, Suriname, Bolivia and New Caledonia. The draw will be held Thursday in Zurich, and the match schedule will follow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9>In next year&#8217;s World Cup, the Guadalajara stadium will host four group-stage matches while the Monterrey stadium will stage three group games and a round-of-32 match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9>The other Mexican venue for the World Cup is the newly renovated Azteca stadium in Mexico City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9><i>Reporting by The Associated Press.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-b1ca39d9><i>Want great stories delivered right to your inbox?\u00a0<\/i><i><u>Create or log in to your FOX Sports account<\/u><\/i><i> and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Mexican cities Guadalajara and Monterrey will host the intercontinental playoff tournament for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA announced Wednesday. The tournament starts March 23 and will consist of six teams from five confederations fighting for two spots at next summer&#8217;s World Cup being hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}