FP’s guide to the 2026 tournament

Soccer, or football for most of the world, is supposed to be a game for the people. It’s arguably the easiest sport in the world to play (though playing it well is another matter), in that very little equipment is required. You can wrap some rubber bands together for a ball, shove a few sticks in the ground for the goals, and boom—you’ve got yourself a game. It can be played almost anywhere, from a patch of dirt to a blacktop in the middle of a bustling city. That’s what makes this game so magical. At its core, soccer is egalitarian and accessible, which is a huge part of the reason it’s by far the most popular sport in the world.

Professional soccer also has working class roots: Factory workers and miners in England and Scotland helped lay the foundations for the modern game by organizing their own teams. Arsenal F.C., the club that just won the English Premier League, was founded by munitions workers.

Soccer, or football for most of the world, is supposed to be a game for the people. It’s arguably the easiest sport in the world to play (though playing it well is another matter), in that very little equipment is required. You can wrap some rubber bands together for a ball, shove a few sticks in the ground for the goals, and boom—you’ve got yourself a game. It can be played almost anywhere, from a patch of dirt to a blacktop in the middle of a bustling city. That’s what makes this game so magical. At its core, soccer is egalitarian and accessible, which is a huge part of the reason it’s by far the most popular sport in the world.

Professional soccer also has working class roots: Factory workers and miners in England and Scotland helped lay the foundations for the modern game by organizing their own teams. Arsenal F.C., the club that just won the English Premier League, was founded by munitions workers.

Today, though, the game has been commercialized across virtually every professional league in the world. The amount of money spent by major clubs on transfer fees alone is enough to make your head spin. But FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, has helped set this standard—and it’s on full display with this year’s World Cup, which kicks off on June 11.

Rather than leveraging the unifying power of sport during a period of historic geopolitical tensions, FIFA has made it harder to bring the world together. The Trump administration’s immigration policies are also not helping. Such hurdles—on top of the exorbitant cost of attending—help explain why ticket sales and hotel bookings in host cities are far below projections. Many fans are apparently opting out of attending.

Having spent years trying to get tickets for myself, I can relate.

Friends play soccer in Kearny, New Jersey, on May 9. One member of the group said he had hoped the World Cup coming to their soccer-mad New Jersey town would mean watching games at nearby........

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