The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins Wednesday across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, marking the first tri-nation tournament in the competition's 96-year history. It is also, by most accounts, the most administratively fraught World Cup since the invention of commercial aviation.
The visa situation alone has become a diplomatic incident. Fans from participating nations have reported weeks-long delays, rejected applications, and conflicting guidance from consulates operating under tightened U.S. immigration protocols. FIFA president Gianni Infantino's suggestion that people should "chill" about the matter did not, as intended, calm anyone down. The State Department has quietly expedited thousands of applications in recent days, but the backlog remains substantial, and some supporters will simply miss their team's opening matches.
The logistics of a continental tournament
The tri-host format, conceived as a celebration of North American cooperation, has instead exposed the friction inherent in staging a global event across three countries with different entry requirements, time zones, and infrastructure standards. Teams and fans face journeys spanning thousands of miles between group-stage matches. The U.S. venues alone stretch from Seattle to Miami, a distance roughly equivalent to flying from Lisbon to Moscow.
Broadcasters have struggled to schedule coverage across a tournament that will feature afternoon kickoffs in California and evening matches in New Jersey. The carbon footprint of the event has drawn criticism from environmental groups, though FIFA has promised offsetting measures that remain vague on specifics.
The football, when it finally starts
On the pitch, the tournament arrives with genuine intrigue. Brazil enters as the consensus favorite among analysts, seeking to end a drought stretching back to 2002. France, despite recent turbulence, retains the talent to repeat. England will carry the familiar burden of expectation that has defined their World Cup campaigns since 1966.
The expanded 48-team format means more nations, more matches, and more opportunities for upside—or for the dilution of quality that critics predicted when the expansion was announced. The group stage will feature some genuinely lopsided matchups, though the tournament's architects argue this democratizes access to the world's biggest sporting event.
Our take
World Cups have survived worse than visa queues and long flights. The 1978 tournament took place under a military junta; 2022 unfolded in a country that criminalized much of its potential audience. What matters, ultimately, is whether the football justifies the spectacle. The next month will answer that question. The bureaucratic chaos, like the opening ceremonies, will be forgotten by the second round. Probably.
