US already considering hosting another World Cup with 64 teams
The 2026 World Cup group stage isn't even over yet, but the USA is already talking up their chances of hosting the tournament again within 12 years.
There have been a myriad of issues around the World Cup, both on the pitch and off it.
Hydration breaks have been met with derision, while the newly-expanded format and switch from head-to-head deciding teams level on points from goal difference has led to complaints of final group games lacking drama.
There has also been the treatment of the Iran team, unable to stay in the United States despite playing all their group games there, and Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry.
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Yet, despite all the problems, there has been some fantastic, dramatic football and incredible scenes of fans of many different nations coming together in celebration.
The USA aren't the only ones hosting it, with Canada and Mexico sharing the duties as well, but it's the Americans who already have their eyes set on another one, especially if it is expanded even further to 64 teams.
USA eyeing the 2038 World Cup
The World Cup will return to Europe and South America in four years time, with Spain, Portugal and Morocco co-hosting it. Though the three opening games will be played in South America to mark the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup in Uruguay.
After that, we're heading back to Asia in 2034, with the tournament taking place in just Saudi Arabia.
That's left a door open for a potential North America return in 2038.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force on the World Cup is highly confident the US is capable of hosting the tournament again very soon. Even if it ends up being even bigger.
He said: "This is what I've spoken about with President Trump, with so many of our cabinet secretaries, I think there's no better country that's positioned to host a World Cup than the United States, and I think we're seeing that on social media.
"I think we're seeing that with all the fans that may be interacting with the US for the first time, or the first time in a long time, that the US truly is extremely welcoming, that we have such an incredible infrastructure.
"We have the stadiums built, so for the US, compared to other host nations, where it costs tens and tens of billions of dollars, you know, it cost us a couple billion.
"When you think that this World Cup may at some point expand out to 64 teams, I think the United States can handle it."
The World Cup could get even bigger
After already moving from 32 to 48, there is talk the World Cup could be expanded to 64 teams in the future.
Given the complaints around third-placed teams making it to the knock-out stages and the fact there hasn't been a feared drop in quality with new teams added, it might not be such a bad idea.
But first, Giuliani wants to get this tournament done and dusted.
"Look, let me make sure we get through this World Cup on July 19 before we make our pitch for 2038 or other ones," he continued.
"But there'd be nothing more gratifying as somebody who went to a couple World Cup matches as an eight-year-old in 1994 to be able to see this come back to the United States again, you know, in the coming decades."
If the USA won the right to host the 2038 World Cup, they would become just the second country to host it three times after their current co-hosts Mexico.
They would take the prize for the shortest gap between hosting, though, at just 12 years. That record is also held by Mexico, who held two tournaments in 16 years between 1970 and 1986.
The birthplace of football, England, meanwhile, has hosted the tournament just once, in 1966.
Daniel Murphy