FIFA has unveiled the full match schedule for the FIFA Series 2026, confirming that 48 national teams from all six continental confederations will take part in the expanded international friendly competition.

The tournament will be played across the March and April 2026 international windows, with fixtures arranged into 12 groups of four teams. Nine of those groups will feature men’s national sides and three will be contested by women’s teams, underlining FIFA’s intention to grow both strands of the international game in parallel.

Eleven FIFA Member Associations will act as hosts, with Rwanda set to stage two groups. Other hosts include Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Thailand, and Uzbekistan, giving the event a genuinely global footprint that stretches from Oceania to South America and from West Africa to Central Asia.

All matches will carry full international status and will be broadcast worldwide. FIFA says this is designed to give emerging and mid-tier national teams more meaningful exposure, particularly against opponents from other confederations they rarely meet in traditional qualifying campaigns or regional championships.

Within each four-team group, participating associations have been allowed to choose their preferred competition format. Some groups will follow a mini knockout structure, with semi-finals and a final, while others will play a set of pre-arranged fixtures. Regardless of the format, one team will be declared group winner.

To guarantee decisive outcomes, any match that ends level after 90 minutes will go straight to a penalty shoot-out, with no extra time played. The approach is intended to maintain intensity, reduce player fatigue in a congested calendar, and provide coaches with high-pressure scenarios that mirror tournament conditions.

FIFA describes the Series 2026 as a direct evolution of the pilot edition staged in 2024. It forms part of a broader strategy to narrow the gap between established powers and developing football nations by offering regular, competitive cross-confederation fixtures outside flagship events such as the FIFA World Cup 2026.

In its announcement, the governing body said the FIFA Series is meant to strengthen both the sporting and cultural fabric of international football, giving lesser-known teams a platform while offering fans a wider variety of matchups than the traditional calendar has allowed.