Canadian Soccer Association in the context of "CONCACAF"

The English word football may mean any one of several team sports (or the ball used in that respective sport), depending on the national or regional origin and location of the person using the word; the use of the word football usually refers to the most popular code of football in that region. The sports most frequently referred to as simply football are association football, American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league football and rugby union football.

Of the 45 national FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, 43 use football in their organisations' official names, while Canada and the United States use soccer. In those two countries, other codes of football are dominant, and soccer is the prevailing term for association football. In 2005, Australia's association football governing body changed its name from soccer to football to align with the general international usage of the term. In 2006, New Zealand decided to follow suit.

United 2026, also known as the North American 2026 bid, was a successful joint bid led by the United States Soccer Federation, together with the Canadian Soccer Association and the Mexican Football Federation, to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

While the soccer federations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States had individually announced plans to field a bid for the 2026 World Cup, the concept of a joint bid among the three North American countries was first proposed in 2016. The joint bid was officially unveiled on April 10, 2017, under which the tournament would be held at venues in all three countries. A shortlist of 23 candidate cities were named in the official bid, with 17 in the U.S., 3 in Canada, and 3 in Mexico. The final list includes eleven U.S. cities that will join two Canadian cities and three Mexican cities, to form the roster of 16 cities that will host the matches of the World Cup. Although a joint bid, the majority of the matches will be held in the United States. The initial bid recommended that the United States would host 60 of the 80 matches. After the tournament format was modified in March 2023, the match allocation now stands as follows: of the 104 matches, Canada will host 13 matches, Mexico will host 13 matches, and the United States will host 78 matches, including all matches from the Quarter-finals onward.