World Cup 2026 begins today, the first one without Serbia
The largest World Cup ever kicks off tonight in Mexico with 48 teams and 104 matches across three host nations, while Serbia watches from the stands.
- The opening match kicks off tonight at 9 p.m. Central European Time at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, with Mexico facing South Africa.
- For the first time, three nations share hosting duties: the United States, Canada and Mexico, with games spread across 16 cities.
- A record 48 teams are split into 12 groups of four, for a total of 104 matches.
- Serbia failed to qualify and watches its first World Cup from the outside.
Tonight, as the floodlights come up over the Azteca and eighty thousand people hold their breath before the first whistle, someone in Serbia will switch off the television before the ball even moves. Because this World Cup, the biggest ever staged, starts without us. No anthem, no jersey, none of that feeling that someone out there is carrying our name. For the first time in a long while, the Serbian supporter is just a spectator, a guest at someone else’s party.
And what a party it is. The 2026 World Cup begins today and immediately tears up everything we thought we knew about the tournament. Three host nations, the United States, Canada and Mexico, sixteen cities, forty eight teams. Where there used to be thirty two sides, there are now half again as many, and that single change reshapes everything, from the schedule to the math of who advances.
Why is this the biggest World Cup ever?
The numbers here are not decoration, they carry the whole story. The format has grown from thirty two to forty eight teams, split into twelve groups of four. That means a total of 104 matches, far more than the sixty four of recent editions. The top two from each group advance, plus the eight best third-placed sides, which for the first time introduces a round of 32 as a separate knockout stage before the round of 16.
The opening is set for 9 p.m. Central European Time at the famous Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, where hosts Mexico take on South Africa. The Azteca thus becomes the first stadium in the world to host the opening of three different World Cups, having already done so in 1970 and 1986. The grand final is scheduled for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, just outside New York.
All of it is spread across three countries and sixteen cities, from Vancouver in the north to Mexico City in the south. Players will travel thousands of kilometers between fixtures, switching climates and time zones, a fresh tactical headache that coaches have never faced on quite this scale.
How did Serbia end up on the outside?
This is the part of the story that stings. Serbia finished its qualifying group in third place, behind England and Albania and ahead of Latvia and Andorra. Third in that group was enough neither for direct qualification nor for a spot in the playoff. A national team that featured at the last two World Cups did not even reach the additional matches this time.
That is a hard pill for all of us who remember what it looks like when the Eagles step onto the biggest stage. Instead of watching our own, tonight we will watch Mexico, Argentina, France and Spain, all those powers that took the chance we did not. The qualifying failure did not fall from the sky, it was built match by match, but the result is the same bitter one: forty eight teams on the pitch, and not a Serbian side among them.
Even so, football remains football. This World Cup offers a month of matches, new faces and dramas we will remember, no matter who represents us. Perhaps this view from the sidelines will teach us something too, a reminder that a place on a stage like this has to be earned all over again, every single time.
So, will you follow this World Cup with the same passion even with no Serbian side on the pitch, or has the spectacle lost its shine without the Eagles?
