Spain deserved to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup. From the opening match to the final whistle, it played the tournament's most complete football. Patient without being predictable, disciplined without sacrificing imagination, Spain eventually overcame an extraordinary Emiliano Martínez, whose goalkeeping almost single-handedly kept Argentina alive. Ferran Torres' extra-time winner settled the final, while Lionel Messi embraced 19-year-old Lamine Yamal in a poignant passing of the torch between two generations of football greatness.

Those are the moments that should define this World Cup.

Instead, the tournament also exposed uncomfortable truths about FIFA and the widening gap between the values it proclaims and the standards it applies. FIFA likes to describe football as the world's game. It speaks the language of neutrality, inclusion and universality. Every qualified nation, it says, belongs on football's biggest stage on equal terms.

The 2026 World Cup suggested otherwise.

No team illustrated that contradiction more clearly than Iran. Unlike other teams, it........

© The Express Tribune