Kolkata: From 13 to 48 teams, from defending champions staying away in 1934 to a long qualification cycle, from England skipping the first three iterations to hoping it will come home, from 18 matches in Montevideo to FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s promise of “104 Super Bowls,” in 16 cities, the World Cup has kept giving.
Since the start in 1930 it has survived a World War and a pandemic, seen the fracture and fusion of nations, the Berlin Wall being built and torn down. It was used for sports washing as early as 1934. It lived through apartheid and when that ended, took the event to South Africa. To the Arab world, east Asia, Russia and the Americas it has travelled. The last time it was held 5.6 billion watched.
Here we go, again. The 2026 edition is unique because the USA, a host, is at war with Iran, one of the qualified teams. This edition will be held in the shadow of travel restrictions and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency of the USA which is hosting 78 matches, on whose watch 32 people died last year, the most since 2004, according to The Guardian. Such scorn in the USA is quite the shift from “One Game, One World,” the slogan in 1994.
There have been protests elsewhere including one on the Mexico City avenue leading to the Azteca stadium where Pele in 1970 and Diego Maradona in 1986 won the World Cup and where Mexico and South Africa will, in a repeat of 2010 finals, kick-off the tournament.
It is unique for other reasons as well. Two water breaks have been introduced to deal with the heat. Mexico is hosting a finals for the third time. The expansion from 32 teams means the number of players has gone up from 736 to 1248 (from 449 clubs in 71 countries). There will be 40 more matches with the winners having to play eight instead of seven and double the number of venues from 2022. A total of $655mn in prize money is also the biggest ever. The 48th team is guaranteed $10.5mn, the winners $50mn.
FIFA will hope that conversation around expenses – an AFP report said the most expensive ticket for the 2022 final cost $1600 while the highest price this time is $32,970 – or the NBA finals will fade once its tournament kicks off. International football is not as sophisticated as elite club football but there will be much to talk about.
With 17 from the squad that won in Qatar, defending champions Argentina will aim to do what has been done only twice: retain the title. Lionel Messi is fit and ready for his sixth World Cup like Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico.
“I love playing football and I am going to do it until I can’t anymore,” Messi has said. That suits Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni just fine. “I like to think he (Messi) is going to keep playing, otherwise you can get sad like it happened with Diego (Maradona),” said Scaloni.
For this, Manuel Neuer has returned to international football. The German international will hope his comeback is compared with Roger Milla’s in 1990 or that of Zinedine Zidane, Lillian Thuram and Claude Makelele (2006). The finals will be the first for Lamine Yamal (Spain), Yan Diomande (Ivory Coast), Arda Guler (Turkiye), Michael Olise (France) and, if they stick to their word, the last for Brazil’s Neymar Jr and France head coach Didier Deschamps.
Before he walks off, Deschamps will have to figure out how to fit Olise, Kylian Mbappe, Bradley Barcola, Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Rayan Cherki in the France attack.
Along with France, European champions Spain start as favourites though a lot will depend on Yamal’s fitness. Yamal and Nico Williams were key to Spain’s conquest of the continent and it is unlikely to be different in North America. Under a first full-time foreign head coach Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil, Casemiro has said, are ready but a step behind the favourites. You can say that about Norway too. They have a balanced squad. And Erling Haaland.
Nations League champions Portugal are second to none in terms of talent but how deep they go will hinge on managing Ronaldo’s time. Harry Maguire’s exclusion could be a talking point in England but any team that omits Phil Foden and Cole Palmer and has Harry Kane leading the line should, in Thomas Tuchel’s words, dare to dream.
Ghana’s Thomas Partey will stand trial on charges of rape and sexual assault but has been included because Carlos Queiroz believes he is innocent till proven otherwise. Ghana, Tunisia, Morocco and Saudi Arabia have changed coaches recently, but so did Brazil in 1970 and we all know how that went.
Without Sardar Azmoun and with distractions off the pitch, Iran will have their task cut out in a group that has Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand, the tournament’s lowest ranked team at 85.
In the finals after 1974 and ranked 83, Haiti hope the World Cup is a distraction for a nation shredded by internal strife. For debutants Curacao, Uzbekistan, Cabo Verde and Jordan anything beyond being at the finals will be a bonus. Even without winger Kaoru Mitoma, the opposite could be said of Japan who have beaten Brazil and England and defeated Spain and Germany in the last World Cup.
If 1994 was the first with players’ names on the back of their shirts, this will be the first with the 10-second substitution rule. Then, Major League Soccer was an idea whose time had come. Now, Messi plays in that league. If his arrival was a moment that transformed the football landscape in the USA, this could be another. Especially, if the home team has a good run.