The FIFA World Cup has been hyped as “the greatest show on earth,” but for the 2026 edition, by far the biggest in the competition’s 96-year history, even that “grandiose billing is nothing like bombastic enough,” according to Oliver Kay of THE ATHLETIC. There is “no escaping the cultural and economic reach of this World Cup.” FIFA expects the total attendance to “soar well beyond five million and generate” around $3B in revenue. FIFA claims that “six billion people, almost three-quarters of the world’s population, will engage with this World Cup in one way or another.” Kay writes in terms of global impact, socially, culturally and economically, “nothing comes close to the World Cup” (THE ATHLETIC, 6/11). ESPN.com’s Sam Borden writes, “The 2026 World Cup: the embodiment of unprecedented excess. … It will be the biggest show in World Cup history. In every way possible” (ESPN.com, 6/11).
UNLIKE ANYTHING WE’VE SEEN BEFORE: THE RINGER’s Brian Phillips wrote, “In all the years I’ve been covering the event, I’ve never seen a World Cup generate this little advance excitement or this much advance disgust. I’ve also never seen a World Cup whose muted buzz could be so clearly attributed to fans’ exhaustion with the cartoon villainy of the people in charge.” Phillips: “I’ve always believed that the good of the World Cup is enough to justify watching, as hard as FIFA works to convince me I’m mistaken.” The “greatest cause for optimism around this World Cup, however, may be the likelihood that the pessimists are right. What if people don’t tune in? What if global interest actually plummets?” Phillips wrote one “disastrously unsuccessful tournament this year might lead to less exploitative World Cups in years to come” (THE RINGER, 6/10). In London, Miguel Delaney writes size is “so much more than a defining detail.” The expansion “affects what the World Cup is -- and how it will go.” This World Cup “articulates the disconcerting sense of a sport becoming so big you can’t get a feel for it” (London INDEPENDENT, 6/11).
