World Cup
As has become tradition, the famous World Cup trophy has been touring the world ahead of the tournament this summer.
The tour started at the beginning of the year in Saudi Arabia and has been in Asia ever since — but soon it will arrive in North America.
FIFA have confirmed today that the trophy will visit all 16 World Cup host cities across the United States, Mexico and Canada as well as 20 other North American locations.
It will arrive in Mexico City on February 26 and move between the three host nations through to the end of the tournament on July 19.
Plenty of teams that will be competing at the 2026 World Cup have announced their training bases in the last couple of weeks.
2010 winners Spain are the latest team to have confirmed where they will be based for the group stage.
They have chosen Chattanooga, Tennessee and will train using the Baylor School facilities. It will be the second year in a row the school has been used at a major FIFA tournament as Auckland City trained there for last year's Club World Cup.
Spain are playing their first two matches of the World Cup — against Cape Verde and Saudi Arabia — in Atlanta before a trip to Guadalajara for their final Group H game against Uruguay.
The big news of this month on the international football stage was the AFCON final between Senegal and Morocco that descended into chaos.
After a late penalty was awarded to the tournament hosts, the Senegalese players briefly left the pitch in protest of the decision. When they returned, Brahim Diaz's spot kick was saved by Edouard Mendy and Pape Gueye decided the game with a thumping finish in extra time.
At the time, there were calls for Senegal manager Pape Thiaw to face sanctions as it was his gesture to his players that led them off the pitch. Well, those sanctions have been confirmed this morning.
Crucially, the suspensions are specific to CAF-governed matches, so will not be applicable to this summer’s FIFAWorld Cup or international friendlies.
GO FURTHER
Senegal boss Pape Thiaw handed five-game ban after AFCON chaos, as total fines exceed $1m
Away from the World Cup briefly, it was a chaotic night in the Champions League as 18 matches were played at the same time.
There were red cards aplenty, changes in the table almost every minute and a stoppage-time goal from a goalkeeper! And there was interest for those of you who will be cheering on the USMNT in the summer.
Midfield Malik Tillman scored twice for Bayer Leverkusen against Villarreal as the German side secured a place in the play-offs.
Timothy Weah and Marseille were left disappointed as that late goalkeeper goal for Benfica saw them eliminated. Sergino Dest's PSV were also eliminated.
The other USMNT players to have extended their Champions League campaigns into the play-offs were:
GO FURTHER
USMNT in Champions League: Tillman’s double, Weah heartbreak in league phase finales
Long, long ago, there were nations who declined to participate in World Cups — or in the qualifying competition — for a variety of reasons.
In 1934, for example, Uruguay chose not to travel to the second-ever World Cup in Italy, reportedly because several European teams (including Italy) had chosen not to travel to Uruguay for the inaugural tournament four years earlier.
In 1964, two years out from the 1966 World Cup, all African teams withdrew from qualifying in protest because FIFA had only allocated them, all teams from Asia and all of Oceania one combined place at the tournament.
But there has never been a World Cup boycott by multiple qualified teams on purely political grounds. The only real precedent is the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
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Why a World Cup boycott is unlikely, and what it would take to organize one
Nations boycotting the 2026 World Cup is extremely unlikely.
In fact, after President Donald Trump dropped his Greenland threats and said that he and NATO general secretary Mark Rutte had “formed the framework of a future deal,” boycott rhetoric has already been tamped down.
The caveat, as Oke Göttlich — the president of Bundesliga club St. Pauli and one of the German soccer federation’s 11 vice presidents — told The Athletic, is: “We do not know yet how the coming months will unfold.”
There is no precedent for a full-on World Cup boycott, but equally, there is no precedent for things that Trump has done. If he were, say, to invade a NATO member and break the treaty that has been a bedrock of the post-WWII world order, that could provoke an unprecedented response from Europe.
A World Cup boycott, in general, “is one of the last tools in the toolbox that you should take up,” Mogens Jensen, a Danish Social Democrats member, told German outlet Deutsche Welle. He said he and the party were not currently calling for one. But he acknowledged that, if the U.S. were to invade and instigate a “real conflict,” then “a boycott discussion is very, very relevant.”
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Why a World Cup boycott is unlikely, and what it would take to organize one
As U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to take over Greenland, and as agents of his government shot and killed two protesters in Minneapolis, calls for a boycott of the 2026 World Cup, which the United States will co-host with Canada and Mexico, have crescendoed.
Those calls have not gained meaningful traction in circles that matter, at least as it relates to the World Cup. Discussion of a boycott has, thus far, come from critics of Trump and his tactics and policies, not from high-ranking soccer officials or government officials — the ones who actually wield power to deflate the tournament.
The idea will linger, and could resurge this winter or spring if Trump, a notoriously unpredictable leader, sparks international condemnation.
GO FURTHER
Why a World Cup boycott is unlikely, and what it would take to organize one
Pubs in England and Wales will be allowed to stay open until 2am for home nation matches in the later stages of this summer’s World Cup. Many pubs in the UK typically close at 11pm, in line with the 2003 Licensing Act.
The extension means pubs can stay open until 2am for quarter-finals starting at 10pm, and until 1am for quarter-finals, semi-finals, or the final starting at or before 9pm, the government announced today.
Pubs were also permitted to stay open late for the finals of the women’s and men’s European Championship in 2022, 2024 and 2025.
With this summer’s tournament staged across the United States, Mexico and Canada, many fixtures start late for a UK audience, with some matches kicking off in the early hours.
Louzan’s comments show that Spain really wants to host the 2030 World Cup final, but the reality is that the final decision will be taken by the FIFA hierarchy much closer to the tournament.
The widespread feeling in Madrid is that the final should be played at the Bernabeu, given Spain is the biggest of the co-hosts, supplying the most stadiums and has such a deep football heritage and experience.
Louzan's pointing to the issues at the recent AFCON in Morocco also appear to be part of the usual lobbying and jostling for position ahead of serious negotiations with FIFA, which will only begin after the 2026 tournament is finished.
Detailed planning for the 2030 tournament has not yet begun — it is not expected that the exact stadiums and cities to host which games will not be decided for some years still.
Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Rafael Louzan has said Spain should host the 2030 World Cup final and added the 2025 AFCON, staged by their 2030 World Cup co-hosts Morocco, “damaged world football”.
Louzan, pictured, claimed Spain has “proven its organisational capacity” to host the final and said “(it) will be held here”, though a venue is yet to be announced by FIFA, global football’s governing body.
Earlier this month, the AFCON final was overshadowed when Senegal’s players walked off the pitch before the final whistle and temporarily refused to play on after Morocco were awarded a stoppage-time penalty.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino called for action after the “ugly scenes” in Morocco’s capital Rabat, with prolonged fighting breaking out in the stands as a small number of visiting fans attempted to storm the pitch.
We want to hear from you.
What do you think about FIFA's ‘dynamic’ pricing system which sees cost go up based on demand, meaning the most coveted games are likely to set fans back thousands of dollars?
Is it a bit of a cash grab? Or is it ultimately fair considering it's the biggest World Cup tournament ever?
Let us know what you think! Email us at: live@theathletic.com with your comments and observations.
As The Athletic's Matt Slater mentioned yesterday in this coverage, FIFA president Gianni Infantino hit back at previous criticism from Germany and England about the record high price of World Cup tickets.
His rationale was the 500 million ticket requests (half a billion) he claimed FIFA had received, apparently proving to vocal critics Germany and England that clearly the prices are fine if so many people want them.
Infantino also said Germany and England had requested the second-most and third-most tickets, respectively.
But surely that is a result of people in those two countries generally being huge fans of football, rather than necessarily justifying FIFA's hugely inflated ticket prices?
Of course people want to go, it's the World Cup. That speaks to the history and prestige of the competition, not to the competence or popularity or success of Infantino and those controlling the ticket prices.
Last week, FIFA announced it received more than 500 million requests for World Cup tickets — with each request being an application for one to four seats at a specific game — during the month-long sales window.
For FIFA and Infantino, this demand for tickets was the perfect riposte to the criticism they have received for their ticketing polices this summer, most notably the record high prices.
“We had over 500 million ticket requests — half a billion ticket requests,” Infantino said, speaking at a World Cup-themed session of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos on Thursday
“And the tickets are not cheap. We were hammered — I was hammered, I should say — because of the ticket prices, because they are so expensive.
“The main critics were from Germany and England, of course. Now, number one in ticket requests is U.S., number two Germany and number three England. Because everyone wants to come and to participate.”
GO FURTHER
Successful World Cup ticket applicants may use resale sites, Gianni Infantino says
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been speaking about the economic impact of the World Cup in the past few days, as he made an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to Infantino, across the three host nations of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the tournament could generate $80.1 billion globally, as well as adding up to $40.9 billion dollars in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He claims it could also create 824,000 jobs.
The on-stage appearances never stop for FIFA President Gianni Infantino, as he headed to Brazil over the weekend for the official launch of the country’s branding for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
Brazil will be the first South American nation to host the Women’s World Cup — but before then the football mad nation will turn its attention to the men’s edition of the tournament this summer.
The pressure will be on head coach Carlo Ancelotti, who attended the launch event in Copacabana, to deliver a sixth World Cup title. They start with group matches against Morocco, Haiti and Scotland.
Anticipation continues to build ahead of the 2026 World Cup which kicks off across Canada, Mexico and the United States this summer.
The tournament begins on Thursday, June 11 and we already know 42 of the 48 teams that will be there — the final six places will be decided in the March play-offs.
Stay across all things 2026 World Cup here on The Athletic.
Good morning all and welcome along to The Athletic where we are continuing our build-up to the 2026 World Cup.
There are still almost five months until the tournament kicks off in Mexico City, but there is so much coverage to bring you.
We'll have ticket information, updates regarding the play-offs in March and so much more, so make sure to stick with us right here throughout the week.