Fifa World Cup 2026 - is it doomed from the start?

Get ready for the greatest FIFA World Cup ever.Is the World Cup doomed before it's even kicked off?It's supposed to be the biggest and best football celebration on the planet, bringing in millions of fans.

We are ready to open the doors to the world.

Off the pitch, FIFA and Trump have been accused of playing politics.The war with Iran, who are in the tournament, continues.Throw in safety fears around Ebola and extreme temperatures, plus skyrocketing ticket prices with FIFA under investigation, and the controversy really is hotting up.

Unprecedentedly high pricing from FIFA.

They've never had anything that sold so quickly.So, can FIFA and America make a success of this year's tournament, or could it actually end up being the worst World Cup in history?Here's the breakdown.Canada, Mexico and USA have been selected by the FIFA Congress.Since 16 cities across the USA, Canada and Mexico were chosen to host this year's World Cup, excitement has evaporated and been replaced by concern.Firstly, about costs.

This could be the most expensive World Cup ever.Take New York City.Two nights in a hotel and a ticket to just one game is around $2 ,000.And then there's the travel.None of the games are actually in the city limits of NYC.Train and bus tickets to matches in New Jersey are up to $98, more than seven times the normal price of $12 .90.

It's the most successful they've ever had, ticket -wise.They've never had anything that sold so quickly.

Don't worry though, if you're a resident of the Big Apple and feeling lucky, there's now a lottery to win tickets for a bargain of $50.Next up, the weather.Specifically, the heat.In parts of northern Mexico and southern America, temperatures are likely to soar beyond 30 degrees.Scientists have already warned about players being at risk.It's going to be really hard to cool down if you're doing any kind of strenuous physical activity.

Off the pitch, there'll be plenty of politics at play too.Iran will be in the US for the World Cup, while the two countries are at war with each other.Iranian fans who chanted death to America at the team's farewell parade are banned from attending, while the team's only allowed to stay in Mexico.Keeping a close eye will be US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, or ICE, as fears about how they'll welcome the millions of international travellers.

We know what happens when local police are pulled into immigration enforcement.It leads to discrimination.It leads to racial profiling.

Some cities have confirmed that ICE won't patrol their World Cup games.What is expected at the borders, though, more checks for Ebola.The Democratic Republic of Congo are playing in this World Cup despite an outbreak of the virus in the country.Canada, USA and Mexico have all introduced safety measures.

If we did not have a World Cup, we would have a completely different situation.But we have specific protocols that ensure the safety of all people who are here in the country.

Teams are now starting to touch down in North America.And while there's been plenty of talk about what could go wrong off the pitch, on it, this is still the biggest ever World Cup, opening the door to more countries than ever before.Some of them competing for the first time ever, all of them wanting to remember this tournament as a resounding success.So, more teams than ever before, but it seems like potentially more problems too.Remembering Qatar foryears ago, though, the build -up then was overshadowed by concerns about politics and human rights.

When the matches started, however, the attention of many fans turned to the football.So will it be the same this time around, or are there just too many problems to ignore?To help answer those questions, I'm going to bring in Adam Crafton, a reporter at The Athletic who's based in New York City.Adam, thanks very much for joining us.How are things shaping up over there then?I think it's getting ready.

It's getting ready.

I mean, when you live in Manhattan, in New York City, there is stuff happening all the time.So, you know, a World Cup coming probably doesn't feel as significant to the people of New York City or to New Jersey, where the games are actually taking place, as maybe it would, you know, certainly in other countries that have hosted a World Cup previously, like Qatar, where it felt kind of nation defining or Russia, where it felt like an attempt to really build the image of the country.I think for places like New York and Los Angeles and Miami you know this is kind of just another event but it's become an expensive event and I think it is something that people are now talking about now when you go into the center of Manhattan and Times Square you start to see World Cup related advertising pretty much everywhere.Some of the bars are starting to have little World Cup trophy symbols outside.So it is starting to feel like there is a World Cup on your doorstep.

And how is the mood?Is it excitement or is there uncertainty as well?

Again, I don't think like New Yorkers are talking about this in kind of everyday conversation.It's kind of this curiosity rather than...

Which seems strange in a way, doesn't it?Arguably the biggest sporting event in the world is in town and people almost aren't that fussed.

Well, I think part of that is America has a population of over 350 million people.There's aroundmillion tickets.Most people won't be able to go Most people probably feel excluded by the incredibly high pricing if you look at the average ticket even by America's standards I mean, this is this is a really expensive World Cup unprecedentedly high pricing from FIFA So yeah, I think I think America is also like a late interest market.It's a market that suddenly gets interested in something once it starts, once it's happening.I mean I saw with the Winter Olympics here where you had the US team went on a great run in the hockey, that all of a sudden that exploded.

in terms of interest.And I think that's probably what you're going to see here, that it might take a few days for people to realize this thing's happening, and then all of a sudden the interest will really tune in.But I think also you have to be careful with an American audience that, as I say, there's over 350 million people.Not everybody needs to like it, right?Even if you get 50 million of those people, that's almost the entirety of the UK.being chewed in.

So, you know, you don't need everyone who watches a Super Bowl or who talks about a Super Bowl to watch every minute of the World Cup.But if they watch some of it or all of it, then that's probably a good thing.

I know that you've been reporting on the ticket prices.What's the latest there?They're still expensive.

They're still really, really expensive.And that's really been one of the defining stories, I think, of this tournament so far in the lead -up.Even, I think, US cities, US organizers, separate from FIFA, have been staggered by not only the the prices that have been laid out so you you have three you have three main tiers you have category one category two category three because they were so high fifa brought in a category fourwhich was a $60 ticket, bearing in mind that some of the category ones and two category ones, just for group stages we're talking about, were going up to six, $700.They brought in a category four, which was $60 tickets.But those $60 tickets, I think were about 1 .6 % of the stadium.

So it's really kind of up in the top of the stadium, in the top corners, probably the seats that people don't really want, really.But what they have done, which is controversial, is it's like they've blended the worst of US ticketing practices with the worst of European ticketing practices.So if you'll just allow me to explain that.In the US ordinarily, if you go on a site such as Ticketmaster or StubHub or any of those sites, you can go on a map and you will choose your specific seat.So you'll get a map of the venue, you choose your seat.In Europe, what you tend to get is a category, particularly if you're buying a Champions League ticket for a Champions League final or something like that.

So you might get Category 1, Category 2, Category 3, Category 4, but you don't get a specific ticket.But the prices aren't as high and the prices aren't dynamic.And by dynamic I mean the price depends on the supply and the demand.So if the demand is super high, the supply is super small, the price goes way up.What FIFA have done...

People will remember this from the Oasis tickets.

Yeah, so similar situation.Exactly.What FIFA have done is both dynamic pricing, which is kind of the worst of the U .S.market, blended with categories rather than specific tickets.So what people have now done in the States is they've bought a category, so they might have bought category one, But they've started to notice these categories are evolving, because some of these categories, you might get the worst category 1 seed, or all of a sudden,

what you thought was Category 1 seems to be seeping into Category 2.And now they've even introduced a new bracket, which is Front Row Category 1, to try and get even more money out of people.And this is leading to investigations in the States.You've had the Attorney Generals of, I think, New York, New Jersey, California, all basically state their intention to get further information from FIFA and investigate this.

When it comes to President Trump, to what extent is he trying to make this World Cup political, do you think?

President Trump was in power when the US, Canada and Mexico actually won the hosting rights to the World Cup in 2018.And one of the lines that he will say all the time is, you know, that he won it.You know, I mean, it's something that the U .S.won while he was in power and therefore he claims to have won it.I'm not sure that's quite true.

I mean, you know, I've reported previously that those who were working on the bid, even during the bid, because Trump had said certain derogatory things about some nations and it was a one -nation, one -vote system.So some of the organizers were basically saying, well, don't worry about him.He won't be in power by the time this comes around because if anything, Back in 2018, so that's his first term, people thought, well, he might be in power between 2021 and 25.But nobody foresaw, even he didn't foresaw that he would lose that one.and we do say he lost that one, and then come back by the time the World Cup comes around.So that was a pretty unexpected scenario.

He did provide a series of guarantees to FIFA around the tournament, which was important, and also his son -in -law, Jared Kushner, went on a charm offensive, particularly to some of theGulf countries in order to win votes.So there is some credit, I guess, that you could give.Now the tournament is here.Look, he was very visible during the Club World Cup last summer.We saw him almost lifting the trophy with Chelsea on the field, and he was present for the final.

I'd expect him to be present for the opening US game.at SoFi Stadium and I'd probably expect him to be present for the World Cup Final.But I don't expect him to be at many games in between.

What do you think the reaction will be like to him?I think we saw at the US Open in the tennis, he was booed.Do you think that could happen again?

It was fascinating at the Club World Cup Final because I was actually sat in with fans for that game.And he was booed when he came onto the field.But then I went on Twitter and all of those accounts that kind of say how wonderful President Trump was, were saying that he got a standing ovation and a fantastic response.And I kind of looked at the person who I was with at that game and unquestioned if I was going mad because all of a sudden these reports emerged.It was almost kind of, you know, the kind of reports you might hear from kind of North Korea about wonderful ovation for the leader.I think the reality is he gets some boos and some cheers when he goes to sporting events.

And I think depending where these events take place, I mean, I think, for example, at the Ryder Cup, maybe, I think the reaction was pretty good towards him.So it is a mix.It tends to be a mix because America is a mix.Even in places like New York and L .A.where I think the general consensus may not be positive, there are still people who voted for him or who have, I guess, respect for the position and don't want America

And of course there's the situation with Iran where the US is at war with Iran.and yet Iran are competing in this World Cup in America.Is that an unprecedented situation?

I'm trying to think if it's unprecedented.It certainly feels unusual for sure.I think, look, there's certainly been incidents in the past, hasn't there?I mean, even Russia World Cup 2018, I think that was post the Skripal poisoning.So certainly the UK was very unhappy with Russia.at that time.

In terms of Iran, look, they were meant to be training, their training base was meant to be in the United States.It was meant to be in, I think it was meant to be in Arizona.And that has, and that's changed.That has now changed.It's now going to be in Tijuana, kind of just over the border into Mexico.Appears there's been some issues over visas for some part, some members of the Federation staff.

In some ways it's a success from FIFA that Iran are actually now competing in this tournament because I think there were moments over the last few months where certainly some of the soundbites both from Trump and also from Iran were suggesting that that might be very very difficult.I think now you know almost the Iranian team will probably go you know, with a bit of a defiance about them, about, you know, we can go and win in America and that will mean something.

You've mentioned Qatar and Russia.Just thinking back to those World Cups, there were controversies around both of those, weren't there?Some might say, particularly thinking of Qatar four years ago, once the matches started, people focused on the football and maybe the headlines about human rights violations disappeared.Do you think we could seesimilar situation here where once the matches start, people maybe stop talking as much about things like ticket prices and other issues have been discussing?

I think attendances are going to be a big story in the first week because FIFA have made, you know, a real god for their own back here by putting the prices this high and by doing like these different ticket drops in different months because it's almost this kind of perception of scarcity that they're creating with each ticket drop.So if the stadiums aren't sold out and the tourism numbers don't hit what the cities expect them to, remember the cities have put in, maybe we talk about this, the cities have put in huge, huge amounts of money and they need to make this back through tourism and through people coming to the games and spending money in their cities.So if those attendances don't hit, I think there's gonna be a lot of questions for FIFA.I think transportation, is going to be a big challenge because as weird as it may sound to Europeans, the US is just not used to mass public transit events.Many of these cities don't have trains, like working trains and subway systems.Some do, some don't.

Some are having to lay off special services, some have hiked prices.You know, the ticket which you would normally get to MetLife Stadium, the New Jersey transit ticket for a kind of 20 mile journey, is normally $12 .90 round trip.It's now $98.That's down from what they first put as $150.As of now, only 6 % of those tickets have been sold.How these transit agencies cope with this, I think, is going to be a big story within the US.

Do you think those anxieties will affect attendances?I don't think those anxieties will impact people choosing to go to World Cup games.I mean, people go to mass sporting events all the time.I'm talking more just about when you have kind of services diverted because of the security demands of major events.It means people, there's a finite amount of offices, right?So there's a huge amount of money being spent on the logistics and organization, and that needs to work seamlessly between the federal government, the states, the cities, all these different agencies, sometimes some of which, you know, the states and the federal government have been at loggerheads at different times over lots of different things during this administration, so that needs to work in tandem.

What about you?Will you be travelling round once the competition's started?

Yeah, so the group stages, I'll be at the games in November.New York, New Jersey.So I think there's one England game in there, but there's also France have a game, Norway, Erling Haaland has a game, Germany have a game, and Brazil, Morocco, which is the opening game.And then after that, I go, I think, to Philly, to Boston.to Kansas City, to Dallas, and then back up for the final.It should be fun.

Quite a journey.Is that going to be straightforward for you?How are you going to be making those journeys?

I think the Philly and the Boston ones are trains from New York.It's about an hour to Philly, about four or five hours to Boston, and then to Kansas City, Dallas, and back up will be flights.The flights will be another challenge, actually, for for the U .S.infrastructure, because peak of summer, you tend to get a lot of storms, variances within the weather.I mean, we've not spoken about heat, which is another challenge that you get with games in America.

We saw last year with Club World Cup.So you can often get internal flight disruptions and connections and things like that.And the treatment of travelers isn't always fantastic, I would say, in dealing with those connections or recompensing people.another thing for those who are going maybe from game to game in different states to just make sure they have enough time.

Let's talk about the heat then.You mentioned the Club World Cup.They've been warning from scientists about the extreme heat and the risks that the players will face.Is enough being done to mitigate that?

I think a decent amount has been done.I mean, for this tournament, there are fewer venues that are open air.So last year at the Club World Cup, there were more venues that didn't have a cover, a dome, a roof, and weren't temperature controlled.Whereas I think this time around, more of them are.So you don't have, for example, as you had in the Club World Cup, those stadiums aren't involved.But the final venue, MetLife Stadium, is not covered.

And I was sat, as I said, in the crowd at the final last summer and it was hot.It was really hot and the sun is beating down on you.And you don't have to run around.And I don't have to run around.And also something people, maybe fans, don't appreciate is it's always a few degrees warmer at pitch level.as well, so it gets even hotter at that level.

They've spent a huge amount of money on things like turf management to try and avoid issues with the pitch in relation to weather variances.They've introduced, FIFA have introduced what they are calling hydration breaks, which I think we can just call drinks breaks, which are three minutes each, three minutes in each half, which almost turns the game into quarters and it will also allow broadcasters, so I presume ITV in the UK will have the option, if not the BBC, just because the BBC doesn't do adverts, ITV would have the option of putting commercials into those drinks breaks.I'm certain that those will be used, certainlyby the broadcasters in the United States, whether they are in different markets that are less used to it, I think is going to be a really interesting thing.The slightly crazy thing which proves that that entire hydration breaks, well partly at least, is motivated by commercials, is even in the stadiums where it is temperature controlled or where the weather is not crazy warm, they will still do the hydration break.So you'll still have three minutes per half, even if it's, I don't know, 15 degrees and raining.

And what I was going to ask you was, there's been discussion of the halftime shows as well, combining that with these drinks breaks, which may also handily be commercial breaks.Is this Trump and the US trying to make this World Cup basically like the Super Bowl?

Well, no, it's not Trump.It's not Trump and it's not the US.It is FIFA.Is FIFA taking their product to a place and presuming that they should adapt to, I guess, local market?Practices which includes you know the biggest game gets a big gets a big event to be fair I mean, we just had the Champions League final where you have the killers on the pitch before the game doing an opening ceremony You didn't have a halftime show.I think a halftime show is different because Halftime is supposed to be 15 minutes.

Now.I think as far as I know the halftime show is Scheduled to be about 11 minutes 30, but we've set up a I guess set down.I think most people are expecting halftime to be extended to over 25 minutes Which I think you know radically old FIFA still haven't confirmed that which feels insane, you know six seven weeks out from the game itself FIFA have got a pretty good.Well a pretty famous lineup.You would say they've got Madonna They've got Shakira.They've got BTS who obviously a huge deal as well and

also have opening ceremonies for each of the opening games in each host nation.So there's one in the US where I think.Katy Perry is performing.In Canada, I think they've got Michael Bublé and Alanis Morissette.Mexico have J Balvin and a host of different characters.

There have been a lot of people saying this could be the worst World Cup ever.How should we measure the success of this once it's all done and dusted?

Well, I don't know what that's based on.I struggle with the idea that the we aren't going to have things to talk about and it's not going to be entertaining and there aren't going to be drama and tears and thrills and spills.

But is that enough to counteract those off the pitch concerns?

Well, it seemed to be in 2022, didn't it?You know, as you said earlier, that once the football started, all those highly legitimate questions about the treatment of workers and the treatment of women in Qatar and All of those questions kind of slowly but surely not all of them, but many of them dissipated And you know, I remember being being there a few weeks in and people started writing stories about how fantastic Qatar was and how it was the safest World Cup ever and how We should actually in future World Cups.We shouldn't have alcohol at all No one should have a beer at future tournaments because it's been so safe and you know Look some of those some of those arguments had some merit to them based on people's actual experiences on the ground.And I expect what you're also going to get for all of the stories that people have seen about, again, legitimate stories that people have seen about ICE in the United States and what Trump's done in relation to foreign policy.When people come to the United States this summer, they will invariably, in many cities, encounterlots of nice people, lots of hospitality, have some great meals, some great travel.

I think the U .S.is different in the sense to sort of Qatar or Russia in that it does have a media that talks about the issues in its country.I think that's a slight, so when people say you know why aren't people talking about all of these issues in the States, well they don't They do on a daily basis.You don't have to go to the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.There isn't a police state here where people can't talk about this stuff.

There are incursions, I think, being made into press access and some of the press ownership in the States.But broadly speaking, America's faults are still largely covered by a domestic and international media.So it's not that people aren't talking about it in relation to the World Cup.It is talked about every minute of every day, you know, on many US media platforms.

I'll end with a couple of actual football questions, if that's all right.Yeah.So Thomas Tuchel, is it coming home?

Oh, well, Thomas Tuchel is going to be fascinating because he's brave and he's, you know, he's leaving out players that I think people presumed may get picked on reputation.So whether that's Harry Maguire or Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, some of these players that we've really, you know, that have become kind of headline names for England at previous tournaments.And there's even question marks about whether Jude Bellingham will start, you know, in the first team.So, yeah, he's making big calls.He'll live or die by them.You know, if If England go on and be successful, he'll get a huge amount of credit for the courage of those calls.

And if they don't perform, he will get hammered for some of these selections.But I think he's got a very clear idea of how he wants to play.I'm dodging your question entirely about whether England win the World Cup.I know how annoying that must be as a journalist.Personally, I don't expect England to win the World Cup.I think it's always hard for European nations.

I think it's only happened once, hasn't it, in America?

Yeah, and I think across the Americas it is always tricky.equally, and they're going to counteract that by saying, you know, my favourites would be France or Spain.But I think England have struggled in the temperatures at times.But as I say, some of their games will be in temperature controlled stadiums.

OK, thanks very much, Adam, and safe travels this summer following the tournament.Thank you very much.That's the Breakdown.Thanks for watching.See you next time.