TWO RULES CHANGES MADE TO REGULATIONS FOR 2026 SHEBELIEVES CUP, PRESENTED BY VISA
Teams Will Be Allowed 26-Player Tournament Rosters With 23 Players Named to Game Day Rosters;
Coaches Can Rotate Game Day Squads Among the 26 Players;
All Matches That End in Ties Will Go Directly to Penalty Kicks with Shootout Winners Earning an Additional Point
ATLANTA (Feb. 11, 2026) – As the annual SheBelieves Cup, presented by Visa®, hits its 11th year, U.S. Soccer has made two significant changes to the regulations for one of the most prestigious four-team tournaments in women’s soccer.
Teams will now be allowed to field 26-player tournament rosters (up from 23 players in previous tournaments), but each head coach will have to name 23 players to suit up for each match with the coaches allowed to rotate the game day rosters among the 26 players. Teams will name their 23 eligible players for each game when starting lineups are turned in for each match.
Additionally, in an exciting new twist for players and fans, all matches that end in ties will go directly to penalty kicks. Therefore, while the winner of the tournament will still be determined by total points, teams will get three points for a win, one point for a tie after regulation, and another point for winning the penalty kick shootout.
Should teams be tied on points after the completion of round-robin play, the first tiebreaker will be overall goal difference, followed by most goals scored, then the head-to-head result at the end of regulation time. If the game between the teams that are tied on points ended in a draw, then the draw stands as the head-to-head result no matter which team won the penalty kick shootout. The last tiebreaker will be the Fair Play ranking, if necessary.
In 2026, the tournament takes on a Concacaf vs. CONMEBOL slant as the USA welcomes Argentina, Canada and Colombia. The USA is currently ranked second in the world, Canada is 10th, Colombia is 20th and Argentina is 30th. The USA and Canada are the top two teams in the Concacaf region while Colombia and Argentina faced each other in the semifinals of the 2025 Copa American Feminina, with Colombia winning on penalty kicks before losing to Brazil in the final, also on penalty kicks, after a wild 4-4 draw in regulation and overtime.
