The world before you – 2026 Football World Cup: popular celebration or high-tension geopolitical event?

“Where, normally, a sporting event is used as an instrument of soft power, to attract populations to oneself, the 2026 World Cup rather serves as a demonstration of force, of power,” analyzes Lukas Aubin, researcher in the geopolitics of sport.

The 2026 Football World Cup, which will take place from Thursday June 11 to Sunday July 19, is already shaping up to be an extraordinary event. Already because it will be organized for the first time in three countries: Canada, the United States and Mexico. Then because it will be the first World Cup to bring together forty-eight teams instead of thirty-two previously.

But the point that interests us today is that this World Cup promises to be very political and very geopolitical. It is playing out in a context where there is no shortage of tensions – to put it mildly -: tensions between the United States, Canada and Mexico; Donald Trump’s restrictive migration policies, with the issue of visas; possible deployment of ICE (immigration police) around stadiums; war in Iran and the Middle East… Without even mentioning the proximity between Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, and Donald Trump, which gives the event an unusual diplomatic color.

FIFA says these political and geopolitical concerns will quickly be eclipsed by the tournament itself. But can we really isolate the sporting spectacle from the geopolitical reality that surrounds it? Is the Football World Cup still the popular festival it promises to be?

To talk about it, Hélène Decommer receives Lukas Aubin, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS). He is in charge of the “Sport and geopolitics” program. He notably co-signed the book Geopolitics of sport with Jean-Baptiste Guegan, published in July 2024 by La Découverte.

The world in front of you is a podcast produced by Slate Podcasts.
Editorial production: Hélène Decommer and Marie Agassant
Présentation: Hélène Decommer
Sound recording, editing and production: Aurélie Rodrigues
Music: “Tangled”, Emmit Fenn