FIFA has been informed by Canada Soccer of the decision taken by the City of Montreal to withdraw from the venue selection process for the FIFA World Cup 2026™. FIFA would like to thank Montreal for its participation and all local stakeholders involved for their efforts. FIFA continues to work closely with the host associations of Canada, Mexico and the United States in this highly competitive selection process involving a variety of very strong and diverse candidates across the three countries. Following the virtual sessions that took place earlier this year, and in line with the recommendations of the health authorities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, FIFA looks forward to the next steps in the process to select the FIFA World Cup 2026 Host Cities. The plan is to run venue visits from September to November 2021, with the goal of finalising the selection in Q1/Q2 2022. Within the scope of FIFA’s strategic objective of making football truly global, the FIFA World Cup 2026 will be the first-ever edition of the competition to feature 48 teams. Further details on the venue selection process will be provided in due course.