Touted as the World Cup regulars, Mexico has played 17 of the 22 World Cups so far. They are only behind Argentina, Germany, Brazil, and Italy. The World Cup regulars tag will be justified by another record that Mexico is set to achieve in 2026.
To date, 18 countries have hosted The World Cup and out of those 18, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, and Mexico have each hosted it twice, while Uruguay, Switzerland, Sweden, Chile, England, Argentina, Spain, the United States, Japan and South Korea (jointly), South Africa, Russia and Qatar have each hosted once.
For the second time in the 92-year history of the competition, the tournament will jointly be hosted by more than one country — Canada, the USA, and Mexico. This will also be the first time that the mega event will be held jointly by three different countries.
But other than this, the next World Cup will be historic for many different reasons. It will be the first time that the World Cup will move out of the 32-team format, which was implemented for the first time in 1998. From the next World Cup, there will be a total of 48 teams, taking the competitive nature of the competition to the next level.
Mexico has been home to the mega showdown twice.
First in 1970 where they also broke the monopoly of the tournament being organised in either Europe or South America. Mexico became the first North American country to host the mega tournament back in 1970. When the hosting rights for the 1986 World Cup were given to Mexico they achieved another feat by becoming the first-ever country to host it twice. Later Italy, France, Germany, and finally Brazil joined the league.
For Mexicans, it gives them the distinction of being the first country to host games in three World Cups. Although the tournament will be jointly hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico and all the knockout games will be solely hosted in the US, it will still be an exceptional feat for the World Cup regulars.
Right from the craziness to unbelievable fandom, Mexico has garnered so much excitement for the big stage but the biggest question will be - Can they end their knockout jinx finally? They have been on the receiving end of many firsts but can they finally break the jinx and become the first-ever North American country to lift the coveted trophy? Only time will tell.
