The biggest FIFA World Cup ever is about to start. It’s also looking like being the messiest
Thursday, 11 June 2026
The 2026 FIFA World Cup starts on Friday (NZ time) when co-hosts Mexico face South Africa.
With 48 teams involved, this is the biggest World Cup ever.
But off-field issues mean it is also looking like being the messiest.
The All Whites face Iran in their opening match in LA on Tuesday (NZ time), at a time when the United States and Iran are still at war with each other.
ANALYSIS: The biggest FIFA World Cup in history is about to get underway.
A total of 104 matches featuring 48 teams spread across 16 venues in 16 cities in three North American countries – the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The action on the pitch starts on Thursday afternoon local time (7am Friday NZ time) when Mexico face South Africa at Estadio Azteca, one of the most iconic football stadiums in the world.
It is set to be a welcome, albeit temporary, relief from all the action off the pitch that has this looking like it will be the messiest World Cup in history – a monstrosity in every sense of the word.
In San Diego, where the All Whites have been based since Saturday, things are relatively quiet, as you would expect with no actual matches being played here.
New Zealand held their mandatory community training session on Wednesday morning local time (Thursday NZ time) at the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium, with a few hundred people connected to the institution in attendance, including a smattering of Kiwis.
A fortnight ago, Tim Payne being the hottest ticket during the autograph and selfie session that followed – while standing side by side with English Premier League star Chris Wood – would have taken some explaining.
But his newfound social media fame is old news now – at least until he does something to excite his millions of new Instagram followers, which won’t be until Monday, when the All Whites play their opening match (1pm Tuesday NZ time), at the earliest.
It won’t be until next Wednesday evening (next Thursday afternoon NZ time) that all 48 teams have kicked a ball in anger – more than six days after Mexico and South Africa get things started.
It will take another 10 days after that for the group stage to be wrapped up and for the first 16 teams to be eliminated.
A total of 72 matches are needed just to get to that point – eight more than were played at each World Cup from 1998 to 2022, when there were just 32 teams competing.
The largest sporting event in the world has entered an ungodly new era – and that’s before you consider everything that’s going on beyond the matches.
Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan being denied entry to the US, where the match officials are based, was an alarm-bell moment.
He may have received a hero’s welcome back home, but he should be here living his dream.
Participants being turned away just isn’t something that should happen once countries sign up to host major sporting events.
Other stories of visa issues and strict security measures abound and have cast a shadow over the World Cup’s opening week.
A labour strike has been narrowly averted at SoFi Stadium in LA, where the US begin their campaign on Friday, three days before the All Whites do.
Among workers’ concerns was the possibility of ICE agents being present at matches as part of an immigration crackdown.
In Mexico City, a protest by a teachers’ union on the site of a planned opening-night fan festival has raised doubts as to whether it will go ahead.
Evidence of the excess dripping off the latest incarnation of this event can be seen in FIFA’s “Super Shoutout” offering, where fans can get names shown on big screens at group stage matches.
If they are willing to pay US$79 – NZ$136. Supposedly a discount on the actual cost of US$99 – NZ$171.
Putting such a high price on something so small is a play straight from Donald Trump’s playbook – back when he was merely a salesman.
Now the US president, Trump’s presence looms large over this World Cup and has played a big part in making it the mess it portends to be.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has spent plenty of time cosying up to him over the past few years, in an effort to make things run smoothly, but the Artan case was the latest example of how little has been gained.
At his pre-tournament press conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, Infantino suggested FIFA was still attempting to resolve that situation quietly: “It’s important sometimes to chill, relax. We work on everything. Sometimes screaming and shouting does not find a solution”.
This week, Trump and the All Whites have both had Iran on their minds.
Trump is still trying to bomb the Middle Eastern nation into submission, more than three months after launching a war that has killed thousands, wrecked the global economy and made the FIFA Peace Prize he was awarded last December even more of a joke than it already was.
The All Whites are simply trying to beat Iran’s national men’s football team on the playing field, but the fact that match is being played on US soil while a war between those two nations is going on makes for a chaotic, unsettling backdrop.
Infantino tried to take a victory lap for merely getting Iran to the US in those circumstances in his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday, but they haven’t actually made it there just yet.
They were supposed to be training in Tucson, Arizona, right now, but have ended up in Tijuana, which neighbours San Diego on the other side of the US-Mexico border.
Their preparations have already been impacted severely by the war, but the integrity of Monday’s match – and the wider tournament – rests on there being no substantial issues as they enter the US.
If a referee can be turned away – and an Iraqi team photographer – why not a player?
The All Whites will continue to shut out the noise and focus on themselves, as they have done ever since the luck of the draw fated them to be the other party in Iran’s first World Cup fixture on American soil.
Their other group G matches won’t be surrounded by anywhere as much commotion.
Match one in Mexico will attract plenty of eyeballs, as the World Cup returns to its traditional mid-year timeslot for the first time since 2018.
Match 15 is the one New Zealand fans are eagerly anticipating – their country’s first in 16 years, since that magic undefeated run in South Africa at the end of a 28-year wait.
But given who they are playing, the whole world will be watching, time zones permitting.
In many ways, this tournament already feels overwhelming before it has even begun.
Thirty-nine days of action are only starting, where it feels like anything could happen – good and bad.