Washington (AFP) – The draw for the 2026 World Cup — the biggest edition of football’s global showpiece ever held — takes place in Washington on Friday, with US President Donald Trump expected to feature prominently in proceedings. The expanded 48-team tournament — up from the 32-nation field that competed at the 2022 Qatar World Cup — will be played across the United States, Mexico, and Canada from June 11 to July 19 next year.
Trump’s attendance at the Kennedy Center ceremony underscores his rapport with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, who has made several visits to the White House and even joined Trump at international summits in the years since the joint North American bid was awarded the tournament in 2018. Infantino’s close relationship with Trump is widely expected to see the US leader be named as the first recipient of a new FIFA Peace Prize, which will be awarded at the draw.
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Trump has made the World Cup a centerpiece event of both his second presidency and the 250th anniversary of US independence next year. However, he has not hesitated to bring domestic politics into the event, threatening to move World Cup matches from Democratic-run cities if he deems conditions to be “unsafe”. In a sign of the global tensions surrounding a World Cup that will have 11 of its 16 venues in the United States, Iran has announced it will boycott the draw because US authorities refused to grant visas to several members of its delegation. The president of the Iranian football federation, Mehdi Taj, stated: “We have told the head of FIFA…that it is purely a political position and that FIFA must tell (Washington) to desist from this behaviour.”
The pretenders to the title, which a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina won for the third time in 2022 in Qatar, will be drawn into 12 groups. The top seeds include Argentina, the host nations USA, Mexico, and Canada, as well as record five-time winners Brazil, two-time champions France, four-time winners Germany, and other strong teams such as Spain, England, Portugal, Netherlands, and Belgium.
The evergreen Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be 41 when the tournament kicks off, has announced that his sixth World Cup finals with Portugal will be his last. He would relish crowning his long career with a first global title for his country. The enlarged cast list also means an opportunity for a handful of first-time qualifiers, including Cape Verde, Jordan, and the tiny Caribbean nation of Curacao.
With six of the field still to be decided in playoffs, the favorites will want to avoid Italy, which won the World Cup as recently as 2006 but has not qualified since 2014. Despite an error-strewn qualification campaign, the Italians still have a chance to reach the finals by winning two sudden-death games.
The opening match will be held at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which also hosted the 1970 and 1986 finals, before the tournament unfolds over nearly six weeks, culminating in the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Because of the complexity, teams will only learn the full details of their match venues and kickoff times on Saturday, a day after the draw.
Supporters’ groups have warned that fans could face eye-watering sums for tickets for the most attractive games due to FIFA’s decision to use dynamic ticket pricing. Prices on popular secondary market websites in the United States, such as Stubhub and Seatgeek, have already skyrocketed, with prices for the July 19 World Cup final in New Jersey starting at around $7,000.
© 2024 AFP
