Did 'The Simpsons' Predict Mexico vs Portugal Final For 2026 FIFA World Cup? No!

The Simpsons did not predict that Mexico and Portugal would play against each other at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Fact-check: A false claim about The Simpsons predicting 2026 World Cup between Portugal and Mexico has gone viral on the internet.

(Photo: The Quint)

A photo is going viral to claim that The Simpsons show predicted a World Cup 2026 football final between the national football teams of Mexico and Portugal .

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)

What's the truth?: This claim is not true.

• The Simpsons did not predict anything specifically about the 2026 World Cup.

• The episode showing this match did not specify the year of the event.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a relevant keyword search and found out that this match airs during the sixth episode of the ninth season of the show.

• This episode, which aired on 2 November 1997, is titled, "The Cartridge Family".

• It shows the Simpson family watching television when a commercial promoting a football match comes up which claims to determine "which nation is the greatest on Earth: Mexico or Portugal."

• The episode further shows that the match takes place in Springfield, a fictional American town in the show.

• The few initial minutes of the episode can be seen in this YouTube video but there is no mention of the year of the match.

• We found the full episode on Hotstar and nowhere does it mention that this match is related to the 2026 football World Cup.

Conclusion: A false claim about The Simpsons predicting a final match between Portugal and Mexico in the 2026 FIFA World Cup has gone viral on the internet.

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