The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada is set to kick off on 11 June at the Azteca Stadium. This tournament, ten years in the making, will span 39 days, 16 host cities, 104 matches, and a 6,000-mile stretch from Mexico City to Vancouver to Boston. It is not just the largest sporting event ever staged but the largest event period, by almost any metric.
The Spectacle and the Controversy
This World Cup is being overseen by Gianni Infantino, a man with a messiah complex who has transformed FIFA into a one-man deal with the devil. Under his leadership, football has become an active player in Trumpism, cosying up to despots and leveraging the flood of cash to shore up his own position. The tournament is estimated to generate $80 billion in global economic output, roughly equivalent to the GDP of Belarus, but it also comes with vertiginous travel costs and premium seats for the final approaching $33,000 at face value.
The End of Many Things
The 2026 World Cup feels like the end of football as the people's game, the end of any sense of scale in staging such events, and the end of football consumption in its old form. It provides a window on America at the end of its own century, still the heart of global culture but exhausted and gripped with wild energies. The tournament is an act of economic violence, designed to tell you that you are nothing but a set of passive eyeballs.
The Teams and the Talent
France have the best squad, Spain have talent and a system, and Portugal have the world's most famous man, Cristiano Ronaldo. Brazil and Argentina are obvious choices for historic and talent reasons. Brazil have a great goalkeeper, a very good defence, and elite attack, with Carlo Ancelotti as manager. Morocco are a very good team, and Norway have a striker with 55 goals in 49 games. England are third favourites, with a strong chance of reaching the final stages, especially with Thomas Tuchel as manager.
The Allure of the Game
Despite the controversies, the World Cup remains the greatest show on earth. Lionel Messi now lives in Florida and is still a genius. The US has a football culture, and the tournament will be a spectacle impossible to ignore. Whether America still works as a country is a question that will be answered as the world watches.
