World Cup 2026: Five genuine reasons why it really could be great despite itself | OneFootball

We’ll hold our hands up, we’ve done a lot of pissing and a lot of moaning about this World Cup.

There’s a lot to be angry or exasperated about. There are, even by FIFA World Cup standards, a lot of deeply unpleasant people being nauseatingly indulged and coddled and paid.

There is precious little concern for the welfare of either players or fans in conditions that may at times verge on unbearable.

But there is still in amongst it all a football tournament chock full of amazing talent that will decide the world champion in the planet’s favourite sport. It basically can’t be all bad, can it?

Here are just five of the things that could make the World Cup great, even if most of them are by accident and the organisers deserve zero credit.

The new faces

Do we like the 48-team format? We do not. Are we nevertheless excited to see new teams in World Cup action? We absolutely are.

We are a land of contradictions.

You don’t have to approve of the road that’s got us here or pretend that giving smaller nations this kind of opportunity was an altruistic motive or ambition for FIFA’s cynical decision to bloat the World Cup to such dangerous levels – and, remember, they would really like it to be 64 if they can possibly get away with it – to enjoy the fact that your Jordans, your Uzbekistans, your Curacaos and the Cape Verdes of this world are going to give the tournament an air of novelty and excitement.

The format offers all of them hope of making it to a knockout game as well and thus, if we all behave ourselves and are very good indeed and the odds are forever in our favour, perhaps even the chance to make hilarious and original jokes about Scotland when they tumble yet again at the first hurdle.

The returning faces

And talking of Scotland. It’s not just the brand new teams at this World Cup that bring a breath of fresh air that will be all too necessary in this infernal heat. As well as the debutants there are a whole bunch of countries returning to this stage for the first time in absolutely ages.

There’s an irony no doubt that both Norway and Scotland, both ending 28-year waits for an appearance at the finals, would actually have qualified for a 32-team tournament anyway. UEFA was the smallest winner from the increase in participant numbers – a clear indicator as to which federations favour FIFA and Gianni Infantino mainly seek to favour (HINT: not the traditional big two) – and both those teams topped their qualifying groups anyway to be among the first European teams to punch their ticket.

Austria are also involved for the first time since 1998, Haiti and DR Congo for the first time since their 1974 debuts, Iraq at the finals for the first time since 1986, Turkey for the first time since reaching the semi-finals in 2002, Czech Republic ending a 20-year wait and New Zealand, Paraguay and South Africa all involved for the first time since 2010.

Even teams that feel much more ‘World Cup’ like Algeria and Ivory Coast are back for the first time in 12 years.

And it’s not even like the expansion has completely eliminated the perils of qualification. Most obviously Italy but also Denmark, Cameroon, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Poland, Serbia and Wales all missed out despite (relatively) recent 32-team pedigree.

Essentially, you can summarise these top two points like this: it’s going to be a very different World Cup, but not all that change is inherently or inevitably bad. You do just have to keep your wits about you at all time and remember that the bad things are intentional and the good things accidental.

Regarding the terror group FIFA, you do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it to them”.

The managers

World Cups always feature lots of great players. Kind of baked into the concept. Whether the World Cup has always been organised to best allow those great players to flourish, that’s another matter. But they are always there. There they are, look. All the lads.

But it’s not always as true when it comes to managers. Without wishing to be mean, the managers can look a bit incongruous at times in what is supposed to be the greatest celebration of the highest level of the global game.

Might still end up happening here, because we really do think Roberto Martinez’s Portugal could win the bloody lot, but there’s definitely incredible star power among the managers this time.

And in a World Cup where conditions are going to play such a key role in a tournament that requires an extra game of its final four, the tactical chicanery and mastery from the dugout could absolutely be decisive.

There are all-time veteran greats by the bucketload in North America this summer. Your Dick Advocaats. Your Marcelo Bielsas. Plus younger but still top-tier names from elite club football backgrounds in Thomas Tuchel or Mauricio Pochettino or Julian Nagelsmann. You’ve got Carlo Ancelotti’s eyebrow in charge of Brazil, for goodness’ sake. That’s a sensational thing to have happened, no matter how it all pans out.

Lionel Scaloni is back to defend his title and truly ensure he is no longer best remembered for the 2006 FA Cup final heartbreaker. Didier Deschamps is here, as is correct and proper. There are other reassuringly familiar presences here. Zlatko Dalic is still in charge of Croatia. Ronald Koeman should not be manager of anyone other than the Dutch national team. Javier Aguirre in his third stint as Mexico manager at the age of 67. Absolutely yes.

Then there are the just flat-out intriguing ones. Graham Potter with Sweden. Fabio Cannavaro in charge of Uzbekistan.

This could be a World Cup for the managers.

Farewell to the greats

We’ve all had our fingers burned before, but surely this time this actually is the last World Cup featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Luka Modric.

We don’t want to think too hard on it, but it might even be the last for Guillermo Ochoa, at which point we do have to ask if the 2030 World Cup will even really be a World Cup at all.

Not for us to say, but ‘no’ is the answer there even before the fact it’s got games on three continents which is at least one and ideally two too many.

The knockouts when we get there

Be patient. Yes, we do have to rattle through a genuinely absurd 72 group games in the first 17 days of the tournament, by which time we will all be dazed, confused and very possibly broken. That is both too many games and not enough days.

And yes, even then we still don’t get a rest day for another two rounds. But stop thinking about that for now.

Once the bloated and ludicrously quickfire group stage is completed, what a genuinely sense-stirring conclusion we could have to this tournament.

We urge and beg you not to burn yourself out, not to gorge on the group-stage feast. Keep something back and you shall be richly rewarded.

Because the second half of this tournament really could be spectacular, if enough of the players have managed to do likewise. The overblown and overgrown morass that is the group stage does eventually reveal something potentially wonderful.

Just consider the following nuggets of detail, which we do think have been slightly lost due to everyone feeling very rightly overwhelmed by the group stage.

From June 28 to July 19 you’ve got three weeks of the purest, uncut football imaginable.

Thirty-two matches across a far more leisurely 22 days of undiluted knockout lose-and-go-home football at the end of which a world champion will be crowned.

For all the valid and much-discussed criticisms of this tournament and its format, the fact it doubles the number of knockout games should not be airily dismissed. Those really could be a truly magical few weeks for us all if everyone can just manage not to be completely f*cked by that point.