Japan and Tunisia to Face Off in 1,000th Match in FIFA World Cup History

The 1,000th match in the history of the FIFA World Cup, the world's biggest football festival, is set to take place.

The Group F second-round match of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup between Japan and Tunisia, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on June 21 (KST) at Monterrey Stadium in Mexico, will mark this historic milestone.

Since its inception in Uruguay in 1930, the World Cup has been held every four years, with the exception of two editions canceled due to World War II (1942 and 1946). This year marks the 23rd edition of the tournament, reaching the 1,000-match mark in 96 years.

FIFA recognizes the two opening matches of the 1930 Uruguay World Cup—France vs. Mexico in Group 1 and the United States vs. Belgium in Group 4, both held on July 13, 1930 (local time)—as the first matches of the tournament.

Both matches kicked off at the same time.

A total of 18 matches were played in that inaugural tournament, which featured 13 nations and was won by the host, Uruguay.

The World Cup reached its 500th match during the 1994 U.S. tournament, during the final Group D matches between Greece and Nigeria, and Argentina and Bulgaria.

It has taken just 32 years since then to double that number and reach the 1,000th match.

This growth is a result of the tournament's continuous expansion.

From the 1954 Swiss tournament to the 1978 Argentine tournament, 16 nations participated.

Subsequently, starting with the 1982 Spanish tournament, 24 nations competed in a total of 52 matches, and from the 1998 French tournament, the scale grew further to a 32-nation format featuring 64 matches.

Now, in this North and Central America World Cup, the first to be co-hosted by three countries, the number of participating nations has increased significantly to 48, bringing the total number of matches to 104.

FIFA has appointed Istvan Kovacs of Romania as the referee for the 1,000th match between Japan and Tunisia.

Kovacs, who participated in eight matches as a fourth official at the 2022 Qatar tournament, has been honored with his first-ever World Cup match as a head referee for this historic occasion.

On June 18, Kovacs and his fellow Romanian assistant referees for the Japan-Tunisia match received commemorative uniforms from FIFA, featuring gold stripes on the sleeves and a "1,000th Match" patch.

Japan and Tunisia are competing in what is considered a "group of death."

In their first matches, Japan put up a strong performance to draw 2-2 against the powerhouse Netherlands, while Tunisia suffered a 1-5 crushing defeat to Sweden.

Following the defeat, Tunisia took the drastic measure of sacking head coach Sabri Lamouchi and appointing former Saudi Arabia national team head coach Herve Renard, also from France, as their new manager.

The 1,000th FIFA World Cup match will serve as Renard's debut as the head coach of the Tunisian national team.

Japan previously faced Tunisia during the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, where they secured a 2-0 victory.

(Photo: FIFA website, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.