Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, holds FIFA World Cup Trophy during the FIFA World Cup 2026 official match schedule announcement on Friday in Washington, DC.
FIFA via Getty Images
One of the unpleasant truths that has emerged from the 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule being set on Saturday – particularly if you are one of the American or Canadian host cities in the Western time zone – is that it’s pretty clear FIFA is not treating all host cities equally.
That’s always true to some extent at the quadrennial tournament. But it’s a much more noticeable issue in a tournament held by three nations whose territories cover such a wide swath of land that the shortest direct flight between the two most distant venues is nearly seven hours.
Yet it became clear Saturday that when cities like Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles had put their hats in the ring put to host 2026 matches, they were doing so for what may feel like a less prestigious or authentic version of the competition than that which unfolds in venues in the Eastern and Central Time Zones.
Whether ranking by the current FIFA World Rankings Top 10 or the list of seven qualified nations who have actually won the World Cup before, there is a clear, heavy bias toward the nine venues in the eastern two time zones among the 15 total host cities.
Here are how some of the numbers shake out:
FIFA Top 10 Team Group Matches By Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone: 15 of 29
Central Time Zone: 11 of 15
Mountain Time Zone: 0 of 9
Pacific Time Zone: 3 of 19
FIFA World Cup Winner Group Matches By Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone: 14 of 29
Central Time Zone: 6 of 15
Mountain Time Zone: 0 of 9
Pacific Time Zone: 0 of 19
Note: Both Mountain Time Zone locations are in Mexico.
Theoretically, these ratios could improve somewhat in the knockout phase. But practically speaking, the possibilities there are too numerous and flexible to address at the moment.
Logistically speaking, FIFA’s rationale is understandable. Eight of the top-ranked sides and four of the former World Cup winners are European, and those that aren’t are South American. Staging games in the Eastern two time zones makes it easier to stage kickoffs that are in better TV viewing times for those nations. And to a lesser extent, it probably makes travel easier for fans coming from Europe or South America to have those teams playing in the Eastern portions of the host countries.
Further, with the relatively wealthy Far Eastern economies of South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand all qualifying for the tournament, it also allows FIFA to schedule the majority of those teams’ matches in the morning or early afternoon local times in those countries by leaning on Western venues, rather than in their pre-dawn hours.
And it appears FIFA attempted to compensate Western host venues to some degree with matches played by the host nations. The United States will play two of its group games in Los Angeles and one in Seattle. Mexico will play all of its home group games between Mexico City and Guadalajara. Canada will play two of three group games in Vancouver.
Perhaps this was predictable after FIFA opted to host the 2025 Club World Cup mostly in Eastern Time Zone venues, with an eye toward trying to drum up support for the event in the European markets home to most of the legitimate title contenders.
Even so, for city governments that will continue to make themselves amenable to FIFA’s requests and demands throughout the tournament, it would be understandable if they felt they were sold a false vision of what they were bidding for. Not to mention fans in those markets who have already joined the ticket purchasing process in good faith without knowing what teams they might be seeing.