World Cup 2026 review

So the World Cup is over. Congrats to Spain. I think most of the world wanted Spain to win, or maybe more accurately Argentina to lose. And what happened in the final – and after it, reinforced people’s choices.

The World Cup overall was good, but not great. Although some great moments – like that Cape Verde goal by Sidny Lopes Cabral (and celebration) and their general performances during World Cup – every match they were not afraid to attack, they didn’t just sit back. Or Haiti first World Cup in 52 years and scoring a worldie goal.

And most of the “big players” turning up and it ended up being a tight golden boot race (Haaland, Messi, Kane, Vini, Mbappe, Bellingham – just Yamal was quite his potential but he came into tournament injured – and he won the World Cup so…).

The World Cup also had lots of good wholesome moments showing why its called the beautiful game with all fans from around the world enjoying football. Saw lots of clips of fans from around the world enjoying US culture and stuff like BBQ, Buc-ee’s, Southern hospitality, baseball, rodeo etc. And scenes of fans from different countries all getting on – and reminding people that although America has a bad reputation around the world, actually its not all like that. (And we all saw stuff like the Norway Row – and everyone getting involved, Scotland drinking Boston dry, Japan fans being super-excited and of course cleaning stadiums).

(I think by USA doing well in the World Cup, it helped things. Its always good when host nation(s) do well so it was also good that Mexico and Canada did relatively well too)

However, there were lots of bad things which happened during the World Cup – and before it.

• That FIFA Peace prize given to Trump for “exception acts of peace and unity”
• Suspending Ronaldo’s ban – so he could play in World Cup – after elbowing someone in a World Cup qualifier
• Ticket prices – and the resale ticket prices – no longer capped. FIFA take 30%. 1.7m final game ticket
• Hydration breaks – even having it when conditions not that hot – changed the momentum of match often. Since it generated $250m in US alone, its probably here to stay 🙁
• Suspending Balogun red card ban after talking to Trump
• Mexico v England match – all that kick-off confusion. Was it going to be delayed? Was decision made before talking to the teams? Seems like it. And in the end their was still a delay
• Super Bowl style half time show – it wasn’t particularly good. Every artist just got about 2 minutes each so was like some montage. Also its not a football thing, its suited in a way to Super Bowl as already used to so many breaks. Also sport scientists were saying that long a break was not good for players
• Trump handing out the trophy – and the idiot just hanging around
• Dallas mural lawsuit – a massive “Ocean Life” mural was a landmark, had been there for 27 years and was painted over without prior written consent for a World Cup 2026 promo mural. A $25m lawsuit was filled
• The whole cost to get to the actual stadiums – since its America, which is very car-centric, walking to stadiums is difficult/not possible (we saw signs online of it being “illegal” to walk from a hotel to stadium). And then public transport costs from what heard was very expensive.
• Treatment of teams like Iran – Iranian team had to leave games in the USA immediately after finished and relocate to Mexico. Iran striker was held and questioned for 7 hours. The team photographer was detained for longer and ended up denied entry
• Argentina – it felt like Argentina were getting preferential treatment. Stuff like VAR interventions per 100 fouls – Argentina had 0 against them (in group stage) – this continued to final. At one point had 87 fouls commited (the most), yellows cards received was 6 (the least). They also had one of the least distance travelled during World Cup
• That Paraguay v France game
• Fans having visas rescined at late notice
• Omar Artan, one of the best refs, would have been first person from Somalia to officiate at a World Cup – he was refused entry
• The final itself where Argentina mostly just fighting. And arguably Spain not as good as been during tournament as they probably should have been 3 goals up and also could have just let Argentina fight. But even with all the fighting/fouling, Argentina were avoiding punishment. And after the match, you had players punching Spain players. Molina I think punched Rodri in stomach and Paredes was fighting as well. I think I read about him deserving respect and I assume didn’t like Spain player(s) celebrating in-front/near him.
  But then we had Argentina players celebrating in England player’s face after their win. Including Barco who said something in Spanish to Bellingham, forgetting he speaks Spanish – and then Bellingham almost gave him like a clip round the ear (well it was a smack round back of head). And there are other incidents like in 2022 there were celebrating in Netherlands face – stuff like cupping their ears. Paredes got a red card after the match although this was “deleted”.
• The World Cup final was late. 4 years planning but still late.