A World Cup without equal!

Normally, the World Cup is a celebration that appears once every four years and disappears before you can get enough of it. However, the 2026 edition seems to be built on the American principle that more is automatically better.

We have 104 matches! The start will be on Thursday!

Almost double the number of classic tournaments. A competition that stretches over 39 days and risks transforming the most anticipated football competition into a marathon in which even the fans will need breaks. And since everything seems oversized, the players no longer respect the rules of time. No less than seven footballers over 40 are present at the tournament, a sign that retirement has become more of a recommendation than an obligation. It seems that no one wants to leave the stage.

The list of participants also includes names that, two decades ago, seemed impossible. Haiti, Curacao, Uzbekistan and other exotic national teams add color to the competition, but also raise questions about the identity of modern teams. In the case of Curacao, only one player was actually born on the island, the rest of the team being the product of the diaspora and rediscovered passports.

Then there are the geopolitical absurdities. Iran, which qualified for the tournament hosted mainly by the United States, will only enter American territory on match day and will have to leave immediately after the final whistle. A World Cup in which a team practically plays with its suitcase packed and its eyes on the clock.

And if football is no longer enough, the show enters the scene. The breaks between halves threaten to approach half an hour, to make way for concerts and productions inspired by the Super Bowl. The traditional quarter of an hour in which coaches used to change tactics risks becoming a mini-festival with lights and pop stars.

Perhaps all of this will produce an unprecedented commercial success. FIFA may count the billions and declare the experiment a triumph. But somewhere, there are nostalgics who remember the days when the World Cup had 64 matches, a few surprises and a final, not an entire entertainment industry.

The 2026 World Cup will certainly not be an ordinary competition. It will probably be the first World Cup in which football will have to fight for the public's attention even with the adjacent spectacle that accompanies it.