There has been so much controversy in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup that it is sometimes easy to forget that it is actually a football tournament. That is why it is something of a relief that the competition is finally underway, allowing fans to focus on the game itself rather than all the off-field goings on. The 2026 competition is being played in North America with thousands of fans descending on the United States, Canada and Mexico to watch their national teams in action. It features 16 host cities, 48 teams, and 104 matches. It amounts to a stupendous orgy of footballing excess.

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Even so, the build-up to this tournament has been markedly ugly and increasingly politically-charged, despite Fifa’s attempts to paint it as a unifying global event. Fifa has faced a torrent of criticism over the sky-high ticket prices for matches. There was uproar in some quarters over Omar Artan, one of Africa’s top referees, a Somali man, being denied entry to the US. Geopolitical tensions have also featured heavily in this World Cup,........

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