Uruguay Will Have Four Stars on Their Shirts at 2026 World Cup

Hal picked up his MA in Sports Journalism and NCTJ qualification from St Mary's University Twickenham, Hal has since been part of Valnet since late 2021.

He started as a freelance football writer for This Is Futbol and carried that on over to FootballFanCast before becoming their social media editor. He now works as an editor for GiveMeSport, predominantly focusing on Premier League, Champions League, and English football.

He also helps GiveMeSport cover other major sports such as MMA, boxing, darts, tennis, and golf. Key events like the summer and winter Olympics are also highlights when they appear on the sporting calendar.

Hal is an Arsenal and Three Lions fan, but keeps an eye on the All Blacks, his favourite rugby team, having grown up in New Zealand. Sign in to your GiveMeSport account At the 2026 World Cup, Canada, Mexico and the United States host the best football nations in the world as they look to win the game's most prestigious prize. For the first time ever, 48 teams are part of the competition, split into 12 groups of four.

As many fans will know, a number of those teams wear a star on their shirt. England, for example, have just a single star above their famous Three Lions crest. Brazil have as many as five on their iconic yellow strip.

Tracking the leading contenders to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or award in 2026.

These stars represent the past World Cups won by each nation. This is why some supporters may be confused to see that Uruguay have a total of four stars above their badge, despite having only lifted the prize on two occasions.

The first-ever FIFA World Cup took place in 1930, between 13 and 30 July. It was hosted by Uruguay, and the South American side went on to win the competition. They then did not enter the tournament again until 1950, when they won it again - this time emerging victorious in Brazil, beating their hosts 2-1 in the final.

So this would account for two of their World Cup stars, but what about the others? Well, Uruguay have not been crowned world champions since 1950, but they had actually managed that feat on two occasions before the first official FIFA World Cup in 1930.

Indeed, in both 1924 and 1928, the South American giants won Olympic Gold. As FIFA had not formed the World Cup at that time, those tournament victories were as good as crowning Uruguay world football champions. As such, they can wear four stars on their shirt, having proven themselves to be the best in the world on four different occasions.

Football's governing body has strict guidelines on the inclusion of stars for kits, and hasn't always been keen on Uruguay having four stars on their shirt. In 2021, FIFA wanted them to remove two of those stars, as they hadn't been won at official World Cups.

This was ahead of the 2022 World Cup, when kit sponsors Puma were told to make the adjustments. Two of the stars correspond to the Olympic gold medals won by Uruguay in Paris in 1924 and in Amsterdam four years later, which were considered world championships at the time.

The Uruguay Football Association, however, argued against removing the stars. Vice President Gaston Tealdi said:

"FIFA has always recognised, even publicly, that Uruguay has four World Cups because in 1924 and 1928 it [the Olympic football tournament] was organised by FIFA and it's in 1930 when they decided to do the championships independently.

"It's an opportunity to regularise the situation and if this has to give rise to an express acknowledgement, it is welcomed."

As it happened, Uruguay ultimately got their way. They have been permitted to use the four stars on their shirt for six successive World Cup appearances, in 2002, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026.

Egypt are one example of how strict FIFA's rules can be on this topic. They had hoped to release a kit that featured seven stars for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. But the Pharaohs were made to remove all seven stars, which represented their Africa Cup of Nations wins, as they were not related to World Cup triumphs.

As such, they are only allowed to wear the seven stars when they play in non-FIFA-regulated games, and won't have any on their shirts this summer as they take on Belgium, New Zealand and Iran in Group G at the 2026 World Cup.

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