Sportmonks Blogs

These days, football clubs can’t rely on instinct alone. More teams are using data to plan, make decisions, and improve performance both on and off the pitch. From tracking every pass and sprint to analysing player fitness and tactics, data has become a key part of modern football. It’s how clubs find an edge and how the smartest teams stay ahead.

Football data has come a long way from simple stats like goals and possession. Today, it’s driven by real-time tracking, advanced analytics, and AI. Looking ahead to 2026, this evolution is only speeding up, with AI and player tracking shaping how clubs, broadcasters, fan engagement platforms and data platforms around the world understand and use the game.

When I first started working on a football data feature, I realised that getting access to raw data is only half the job; what really counts is how you use it. The Sportmonks Football API gives you live scores, line-ups, betting odds, and statistics from leagues all over the world, but without smart strategies, you could end up wasting time, bandwidth, and money.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is going to be huge. 48 teams, 12 groups, and matches spread across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. If you’re working on a football app, fantasy league platform, or sports analytics tool, having access to the complete tournament schedule and group structure is essential. In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to retrieve World Cup 2026 fixtures, make sense of the tournament’s group setup, and organise the data for your project using the Sportmonks Football API. Let’s dive in!

This article explores lesser-known facts, logistical challenges, and subtle innovations surrounding the 2026 FIFA World Cup, offering context beyond the headline changes ahead of the tournament.

The Africa Cup of Nations is happening in Morocco from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026. This is the first time the tournament will take place over the festive period, running right through Christmas and the New Year. With 24 teams battling for the top prize in African football, this year’s competition is set to be full of excitement, big surprises, and memorable moments.

The draw is complete. The groups are fixed. Now comes the part that truly matters: football. On paper, the groups are sorted neatly by seeding and confederation rules. In reality, they are sorted by narrative, by history, by old grudges, by the specific 11 players on each pitch, and how they are built to dismantle each other. The 2026 World Cup has 104 matches ahead. Some will be routine group-stage formalities. Most, however, are not. Most carry significant weight: a 24-year-old injury that needs avenging, a defending champion testing their dominance, an underdog nation proving they belong, or a generational talent’s final World Cup.

It was a quiet, inevitable event where 48 nations (not the familiar 32) learned their fate. The largest World Cup draw in history unfolded at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and with it came a dramatic change to who gets to dream and how far those dreams can stretch. For the first time since 1998, FIFA did not draw groups for a 32-team tournament. Instead, they drew for something far bigger, more complex, and infinitely more unpredictable: a vast, three-nation spectacle spanning 104 matches over 39 days. The World Cup just got very real.

Football apps live or die by data accuracy. One wrong goal, one late update, and users lose trust. In a world moving at match speed, only real-time, reliable football data keeps you in the game.

Fantasy football has evolved from a casual hobby into a data-driven powerhouse of fan engagement. Modern platforms thrive on real-time, accurate stats that keep players hooked and gameplay dynamic. With Sportmonks’ Fantasy Football API, you can power that experience, from live events to global league coverage.

For a long time, football has been ruled by Europe’s biggest leagues and famous players. But things are changing. Across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, new leagues and fans are growing fast. As football becomes more global, the data behind it needs to keep up too. It’s no longer enough to track only Europe as apps, media, and fantasy platforms need data from everywhere to tell the full story of the game.