In which stadiums will the World Cup favorites play?

Hi, I'm Guillermina, product specialist at Datawrapper. The 2026 FIFA World Cup ⚽ is underway – and it's the perfect opportunity to try out our newly-released locator map arrows.

The FIFA World Cup is taking place across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which means that the teams have to travel quite a bit if and when they advance. To map this journey, I used point markers to show where each team is scheduled to play and arrows to show the order and direction of travel.

Let’s look at Spain first, widely considered the tournament favorite according to betting tips. Spain is the reigning European champion (Euro 2024), and it's been on a remarkable run: unbeaten in their last 31 competitive games. Here’s where they’ll play in the United States and Mexico:

As we can see, the Spanish team would see a lot of North America on their way to the Cup: Georgia, Guadalajara, California, Texas, and New Jersey. That's a lot of time on planes.

I also made a map for Argentina. The betting markets don’t see the team as a favorite — but an economics professor at the University of Reading does, and, more importantly, I was born there. For many Argentinians, there's an extra layer of emotion, since it's widely expected to be Lionel Messi's last World Cup.

Argentina has won the World Cup three times. And if the team won this one, it would be a... well, let's just say one more than three. We don't say the actual number. We're superstitious like that.

Both of the maps above assume a scenario in which each team finishes first in its group. The 2026 World Cup bracket is fixed by finishing position, so the team that finishes second faces a completely different path. If Argentina or Spain finish as runner-ups in their group, the venues and the map would look entirely different. With 48 teams and an expanded bracket this year (up from 32 in the 2022 World Cup), there are dozens of possible routes to the final.

That's all for this week! You can go ahead and try the new arrow markers yourself. They're available now in Datawrapper locator maps. And come back next week for another Weekly Chart by one of my colleagues.