The 2026 World Cup is now only 8 days away, where Mexico host South Africa in the opener in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. It’s 11 days until Scotland’s long-awaited return to the world stage, when we face Haiti in Boston.
This is the biggest World Cup in history by number of teams, with the largest expansion the tournament has ever seen. FIFA has moved from a 32-team format, which was used for seven tournaments, to a 48-team World Cup for the first time. That means that after the group stage, 32 teams will progress, with only 16 eliminated.
Two-thirds of teams will reach the knockout rounds, as the top two in each of the 12 groups progress, along with the eight best third-placed teams. Therefore, a single victory will be enough for some teams to go through, depending on goal difference. In a later article this week, I’ll discuss what Scotland need to do to progress and which destinations could be lying in wait in the knockout round.
But first, for this article, I have created:
a ‘stats pack card’ for all 48 World Cup participants.
a graphic showing the UK kick off times for all group stage games
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World Cup stats cards, 1 for the tournament itself and 3 for the squads
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I’ve kept the format the same for the stats pack card for every nation, and included a ‘Scottish link’ for each nation.
Ideally, that is a player in the current squad who plays, or has played, for a Scottish club. If I couldn’t find one, I looked for someone who has played against a Scottish team in Europe recently. Failing that, I used the most recent meeting between that nation and Scotland.
As ever, if you spot any errors, no matter how small, please get in touch. I pride myself on keeping the website as accurate as possible.
GROUP A
Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czechia
GROUP B
Canada, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Qatar, Switzerland
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