The 2010 World Lacrosse Championship was held between 15–24 July. This international men's field lacrosse tournament organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse took place in Manchester, United Kingdom. This was the third time that the tournament was played in Greater Manchester, after the 1978 and 1994 championships.

The United States captured their ninth gold medal, defeating Canada 12–10 in the championship game. Paul Rabil of Team USA was named tournament MVP. Australia earned its fourth-straight bronze medal by defeating Japan 16 –9.

A record 29 nations competed at the event, eight more than the 2006 WLC in London, Ontario. The 101 games were held at the Armitage Centre, Manchester University's sports grounds.

For the first time, a FIL World Lacrosse Festival ran alongside the world championships from 17 to 22 July. 48 teams from around the world competed in 8 divisions from U16 to Grand Masters.

The Iroquois Nationals' participation in the championships was prevented in a dispute over their passports. The team sought to travel on Haudenosaunee passports, but the United Kingdom government would not allow it because of increased passport security requirements. The United States Department of State initially also refused to allow the passports, but later granted the team a one-time waiver to travel to the tournament. However, the U.K. would not issue the team visas.

Initially, the Iroquois were hoping to be able to travel, and agreed to forfeit their first game against England. Because it was the opening game of the tournament, organizers arranged for the host team to play Germany in an exhibition match instead. However, just before game time, the FIL decided to move Germany to the Blue Division and the Iroquois to the Plum Division, making the England-Germany match an official one. The Iroquois team did not officially withdraw from the tournament, and would have been allowed to play its remaining games should it have resolved its passport difficulties in time. On 18 July, the FIL announced that the competition schedule had progressed too far to allow Iroquois to compete in the tournament. Each of the other three Plum Division teams were given 1–0 forfeit victories over the Iroquois team.

For pool play, nations were separated into seven divisions according to strength, the top six teams were placed in the Blue Division, and the other teams were put in six divisions of four. Each of the thirty nations were eligible to win the championship. Each division played round-robin games for ranking to determine which tournament brackets they would be placed in.

The Blue Division originally consisted of the top six teams from the 2006 World Lacrosse Championship, but Germany was moved up to replace the missing Iroquois team. The first and second place teams from the Blue Division advanced to the tournament semifinals. The third and fourth place teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The fifth and sixth place teams were placed into the 5th through 8th place classification bracket.