North American bid was the rational choice to host the 2026 World Cup but it is difficult to see less privileged countries ever getting the opportunity nowSafe, rational and bountifully lucrative as the Fifa decision is to have the 2026 World Cup hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, it is also disappointing for romantics fancying another tournament in Africa – and laced with contradictions, too.Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, looked opportunistically quick to immediately put himself forward for re-election next year, and he was followed by US president Donald Trump with a self-congratulatory tweet. Hosting World Cups and Olympic Games is openly a politicians’ prestige-burnishing project now, not only for Russia’s president Vladimir Putin or Qatar’s Emir, seeking soft power...
Unburdened by hype and narcissism, Gareth Southgate and his side have the qualities that make it easy to once again get behind the national team at a World CupA World Cup is upon us, which means it’s time to look forward as well as back. Forward to a glut of football over the next few weeks – some of it great, some of it poor, all of it compelling – and back to previous tournaments, acting as they do as signposts in our lives. We remember how they shaped our summers as well as ourselves and, as is the case with most things, the first World Cup tends to mean the most. Related: ‘On the pitch there was a divide’:...
Who will triumph in Russia? Which player will be top scorer? Who will be the breakthrough star? How far will England go?My time of selecting Spain to win every tournament is now officially over – probably four years too late – and I’m reverting back to Germany, in a penalty shootout against France. Daniel Taylor Related: David Squires on ... the World Cup: Football Christmas is here! Related: World Cup 2018: complete guide to all 736 players Related: Marcel Desailly picks his all-time France XI Related: Piotr Zielinski: Poland's playmaker tipped to be the next Kevin De Bruyne Related: England World Cup squad told they will be soft targets for Russian hackers Related: Morocco receive late boost in their bid...
Infantino is threatened by resistance within his own ranks and political volatility worldwide – not least in the ramifications of a vote to host the 2026 tournamentThe World Cup in Russia has sailed into view with a new Fifa captain at the helm, two and a half years since Sepp Blatter’s presidency crashed on the rocks of corruption and ethics breaches. Gianni Infantino seemed a callow, unlikely president when he was elevated to succeed the banned Blatter in February 2016 as, his tie slightly askew, he tapped his heart in wonderment at winning the vote of the Fifa congress.Yet the better clue to how Infantino would operate has turned out not to be that moment of youthful elation but the...
I cannot wait for the tournament to start. I just feel like I’m going to be happier arguing about VAR than about nerve agentIn 2012, the Pointless host Richard Osman conceived the World Cup of Crisps, in which 32 big-hitting varieties of crisp were pitted against each other in group stages, all decided by Twitter polls. Thereafter, the winners proceeded to knockout stages, meeting in quarter-finals, before progressing to – well, I believe you are familiar with this general format.Osman has since expanded the idea to the World Cup of Chocolate, and a book called The World Cup of Everything, which invites readers to stage their own hotly contested tournaments between the weightiest competitors in the fields of such things...