The 2026 World Cup has come with a lot of new things.
The tournament is first being hosted by trio nation for the first time in history of the tournament.USA Canada and Mexico will host the tournament.
The tournament has the highest number of teams 48 team an increase from 32 teams. The previous World Cup in Qatar also has eight groups while this year’s tourney will have 12.
Six new rules have also been introduced.
The rules are Mouth Covering Red Cards: Players who deliberately use hand,arm or shirt to cover their mouth mouth during confrontation or argument with opponent or referee will be red carded immediately.
In the second new rule Time Wasting Restarts:(Five seconds Count Down) Referee issue a visible five seconds count down for throw in goal kicks.Draw results in possession overturned to the opponent or a corner Kick
Third is Time Limited Substitutions (Ten Seconds):Players substituted have ten seconds to leave the pitch from the nearest boundary line.Failure to do so means the so will result to their substitute waiting for one minute on the sudeline meaning they will play with 10 men in the one minute.
Fourth is Off Field Medical Treatment: If medical staff enter field to attend to a player that player must leave the pitch for at least one minute after play resumes to avoid fake injuries.
Fiveth is Expanded VAR powers: The video assistant Referee system can no review wrongly awarded corner,clear mistakes on second yellow card resulting to send off and issues involving mistaken identity.
Lastly Mandatory Hydration Breaks: A three minutes mandatory Water Breaks are implemented midway through each half (22 minutes) to protect player welfare across the host venues that are occasioned with high temperatures.
However the cooling breaks have been viewed by sports analysts as an opportunity for TV commercials rather than protecting players with some saying breaks will lead to injuries instead.
Edited by John Majau
