THE World cup 2026 already has more expulsions than the last two editions of the tournament. Six players have already received red cards in the 29 matches played so far.
With the end of the match between United States and Australia, won by the hosts 2-0there are 75 games left until the end of the tournament. The final takes place at the New Jersey stadium on July 19.
The world of FIFA started on Wednesday (10) last week and completes ten days this Saturday (20).
Four years ago, in the World Cup Qatarfour players from different countries received red cards: Dutchman Denzel Dumfries, Cameroonian Vincent Aboubakar, Moroccan Walid Cheddira and Welshman Wayne Hennessey.
The same number of expulsions was recorded in the 2018 competition. The most undisciplined athletes in the Russia were Carlos Sánchez, from Colombia; Jérôme Boateng, from Germany; Michael Lang, from Switzerland; and Igor Smolnikov, representing the host country.
This year, only in the opening game between Mexico and South AfricaBrazilian referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio showed the red card to three players: Sphephelo Sithole, Themba Zwane (South Africans) and César Montes (Mexican).
The number of expulsions equaled that of the two previous World Cups last Thursday (18), after Bosnian defender Muharemovic received a straight red for tackling center forward Breel Embolo, in the duel between Switzerland and Bosnia.
Later, in the 6-0 rout of Canada against Qatar, two Arab players went to the dressing room early: Homam Ahmed, for fouling Buchanan, and Assim Madibo, for the tackle that resulted in a serious injury to Canadian midfielder Ismäel Koné.
IS THE CUP MORE VIOLENT?
This year’s edition has 67 yellow cards. In the Qatar Cup, there were 227 warnings for athletes, in 64 matches — four more than the 223 yellow cards shown in the tournament hosted in Russia, which featured the same number of games, according to data from the websites Sofascore and Ogol.
In 2026, however, FIFA increased the participation of teams in the competition — from 32 to 48. In other words, an increase of 16 teams and 40 games. Therefore, based only on absolute numbers can be misleading.
So far, the average number of yellow cards per match in the World Cup hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada is lower than in the previous two years. There are 2.31 warnings per game this year compared to 3.54 (2022) and 3.48 (2018).
Based on this criterion, it is not possible to say that the games at this World Cup are more violent than in the past two editions.
In terms of average red cards per game, the 2026 World Cup surpasses the tournaments in Qatar and Russia. So far, the current tournament has seen 0.21 expulsions per match, compared to 0.06 in competitions played four and eight years ago.
