The future of the 2026 World Cup is about to change dramatically as soccer's governing body, FIFA, is considering using fixtures-free scheduling for the tournament.

Traditionally, World Cups have been held in two-year cycles, with the next one scheduled for 2026. However, FIFA is now looking at ways to make the event more inclusive and sustainable by introducing a new format that would allow teams to play against each other without having to schedule their matches separately.

Under this new system, teams would be grouped into six groups of four teams, with each group playing a round-robin tournament against the other five teams within its group. This would mean that each team would only need to play once per group, making it easier to organize and reducing travel costs.

FIFA has already tested this format at the 2019 Women's World Cup, where the results were highly positive. Teams reported that they found it much easier to plan their schedules and that there was less pressure on them to win all their games.

Another benefit of this new format is that it could lead to more competitive matches between teams, as they would not have to worry about avoiding each other during the group stage. This would also help to reduce the number of draws and upsets, which can sometimes happen in traditional World Cup formats.

Overall, the use of fixtures-free scheduling for the 2026 World Cup would be a major step forward in soccer's sustainability efforts. It would create a more inclusive and fair competition while also allowing fans to enjoy some exciting football.