2026 World Cup In Numbers

Introduction

The men’s World Cup starts on June 11^th and in this listening practice we look at some of the numbers behind the tournament. For example, do you know how many World Cups there have been? How many teams are going to take part in the 2026 World Cup? How many venues (or places where the games take place) are there?

You are going to hear lots of numbers and also lots of country names so before trying this lesson you can look at the list of teams that are taking part in this World Cup. And don’t forget to look at how to write and say the adjective to describe this country (e.g. England – English).

• Listening for understanding the main idea: who? what? when? how?
• Listening for details: numbers; country names
• Vocabulary for talking about the World Cup

Key vocabulary

Here is a list of some of the key words from this listening to help you prepare

• Tournament: The full competition; the 2026 World Cup
• Venue: The place where the games or the tournament take place
• To kick off: To start (the tournament; the match)
• To host / the host: The countries where the games are taking place (the USA; Mexico and Canada)
• To co-host: When countries host a tournament together
• Group stage: The first part of the tournament that decides which teams will play in the knock-out rounds
• To make their debut: To play in their first game (a player or a team)

Pre-listening questions

Here are some questions about the 2026 World Cup that can help you to prepare for the listening.

• When was the first World Cup? When did it first take place?
• How many World Cups have there been? How many times has the World Cup taken place?
• Where will this year’s Word Cup take place?
• How many countries will play in this World Cup?
• How many countries will be playing for the first time in a World Cup?
• How many matches do you think there will be in this year’s tournament?

Listening: Main ideas

Listen to the full report (5 minutes) and take notes using the following headings.