On Mohammed Kilani – This time the World Cup will be held in a very complex context against a backdrop of wars, economic crises and latent conflicts that a spark could transform into armed confrontation. To the innovation of entrusting the organization to three countries, and the evolution of the number of participants to forty-eight, is added the question of Iran whose qualification for the final tournament is not synonymous with effective presence.
The specter of war will never leave the minds of the protagonists on all sides. This requires a vigilant and responsive security service as needed during the 114 matches from June 11 to July 19, 2026.
As for the financial indicators, they do not lie. Let’s start with television rights. Already China and India – or 20% of rights – are still recalcitrant, preferring a wait-and-see approach to obtain better conditions. The time difference is among the arguments pleading for this negotiation. Fifa nevertheless intends to raise four billion dollars for this edition. A sign of the rampant gigantism that characterizes this first-rate multinational.
As an indication, which may seem burlesque to some, anecdotal to others, the president of Fifa has multiplied his income by four in eight years. He receives 5.2 million euros annually, which is equivalent to fifty thousand Tunisian dinars per day. But Fifa has been, since Joao Havelange (president from 1974 to 1998), a hotbed of financial scandals, corruption and shenanigans, notably during the electoral campaigns for the attribution of the organization of the final phase of the World Cup.
In addition, the rise in ticket prices, the impact of the war in Iran on oil, and therefore air transport, the revision of transport in the American metropolises of the World Cup, all of this constitutes a threat to the success of the World Cup. Originally a popular sport, football is no longer an accessible or cheap spectacle. No viewer will be able to watch a high-level match for free. Even the areas dedicated to outdoor match broadcasts are chargeable. In cafes, consumption risks experiencing a significant revision of prices.
Threats to football have in the past been hidden by Fifa. In 1970, football was the cause of an armed conflict between Honduras and San Salvador after a qualifying match for the Mexican World Cup.
In 1978, the military dictatorship in Argentina exerted all its weight to lead the national team to the final coronation, after a decisive Argentina-Peru (6-0) which blocked the road to the final in Brazil.
In 1986, the Falklands War was in the background of the Argentina-England match, hosted by the hand of God of Maradona, as revenge on the English military attackers, and the goal of the century scored by this same football genius, felt as a humiliation by the British. Having organized the World Cup alone in 1994, the Americans are undoubtedly counting on this edition to heal an image tarnished by arrogance and excesses in several areas. The American dream, once perceived as an aspiration among young people and even those not so young, has transformed into a rejection of a dominating culture without ethics and based on principles increasingly removed from the image of the past.
Mohamed Kilani
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