分类： sports

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup rapidly approaches, a critical question is gaining increasing attention across global sports circles: is the United States fully prepared to welcome the world’s biggest football tournament? The question has been thrown into sharp focus in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, one of the key host zones that is scheduled to stage eight matches during the month-long event, more than many other host cities across the North American joint hosting project.

BBC correspondent Nada Tawfik has recently been on the ground investigating the current state of preparations in the region, uncovering a series of lingering concerns that have yet to be fully resolved. From infrastructure upgrades to transportation capacity, and fan experience planning to security arrangements, multiple aspects of the readiness work are still undergoing final adjustments, leaving observers questioning whether all deliverables will be completed on time ahead of the tournament’s kickoff.

The New York-New Jersey area is one of 16 host cities across the three co-host nations of the United States, Mexico and Canada, and its central role in the tournament means any delays or gaps in preparation could have knock-on effects for the entire event. Football fans from every corner of the globe are expected to descend on the region to watch top-tier matches, placing significant expectations on local organizers to deliver a seamless, world-class experience. As preparations enter the final stretch, all eyes remain on how organizers will address the identified concerns and cross the finish line in time for the historic 48-team tournament.

It has been more than three decades since the United States last opened its stadium doors to the FIFA World Cup, and with the 2026 edition — the first expanded 48-team tournament, co-hosted alongside Canada and Mexico — just days away, the nation is caught between soaring anticipation and lingering uncertainty over whether it is fully prepared to welcome the global sporting event.

Multiple growing pains have emerged in the final lead-up to kickoff. Geopolitical tensions, widespread frustration over strict visa entry requirements, and eye-popping match ticket prices have dominated pre-tournament conversations, casting a shadow of concern over what is supposed to be a unifying global celebration. Yet for millions of American soccer fans and small business owners across the country, the excitement of hosting the world’s most-watched sporting event on home soil has outweighed these growing pains.

At the Red Bull training complex in Morristown, New Jersey, one of the world’s most successful national sides, Brazil, has already settled into its official base camp. As the Seleção runs through tactical drills and fitness preparations, crowds of giddy fans have gathered along the facility’s sidelines to catch a rare, close-up look at their favorite football stars. Many young fans have left with cherished autographs and selfie photos with the players.

Brazilian forward Matheus Cunha, who plies his club trade at Manchester United, praised the host nation’s preparations in an interview with the BBC. “The fans have been amazing, and so far, it’s off to a good start,” he said, lauding the quality of the training facility, the pitch, and even the mild New Jersey summer weather, which he says reminds him of home back in Brazil. He only had one lighthearted quip for his hosts: “The only thing, it’s called football, not soccer.”

Across the country in New York City’s Brooklyn neighborhood, young players with the S.C. Gjøa Soccer club are already counting down the minutes to kickoff, with many having secured coveted tickets to multiple matches. Dennis Wyrwoll, a long-time soccer fan who attended the last U.S.-hosted World Cup in 1994, is set to bring his 10-year-old son Nicholas to four matches. Recalling the 1994 tournament, he noted that “at that point, nobody knew anything about football” and tickets were easy to obtain. Today, he says there is undeniable buzz in major New York, but he remains curious to see if that excitement translates to smaller cities across the U.S. where soccer has historically had a smaller fanbase.

Indeed, the profile of soccer in the U.S. has grown exponentially since the 1994 tournament, and many local coaches credit the 2026 hosting gig with accelerating that growth. S.C. Gjøa coach Kaha Tavadze told the BBC that his club has seen a threefold increase in youth player registrations and tryouts in just the past 12 months alone, a shift he directly attributes to the excitement of hosting the World Cup.

“Children now follow the sport more closely, know every top player, and wear their favourite team’s jersey,” Tavadze explained. He added that the tournament could even inspire a new generation of American players to pursue professional careers: “Watching live games, especially at that level, will change their mindset.”

For all the excitement, however, systemic barriers remain. Sky-high ticket prices have put in-person attendance out of reach for many working-class fans, even those with deep connections to the sport. Shantay Armstrong, whose 7-year-old son has played with the Brooklyn club for five years, says she and her son have long dreamed of attending a World Cup match together. She entered an official raffle for affordable tickets hosted by New York City, only to watch the raffle close to new entries within minutes of going live.

“It’s almost heartbreaking that there’s like a lack of accessibility for people who can’t afford to go,” Armstrong said. “I wanted to give him that opportunity, but that lack of opportunity makes me feel locked out, like we’re here but we’re not really part of it.”

Tournament organizers have moved to address this gap by opening free public fan zones across host cities, allowing fans without match tickets to still gather and experience the excitement of the tournament. Officials have also worked to direct foot traffic to local small businesses, in the hopes that communities across the country can share in the expected economic windfall from the global event.

Enda Keenan, owner of Legend’s Bar — a popular destination for overseas soccer fans located just steps from the Empire State Building in Manhattan — says he already expects a historic boost to his business, so much so that he has even turned down extra event requests from FIFA. “I said we can’t help ourselves, it’s going to be so crazy, we’d love to help, but there’s nothing we can do,” Keenan explained. He anticipates that even New Yorkers who never watch soccer will flood bars and fan zones to join the fun, saying that “it’ll be that much of a buzz.”

During last year’s UEFA Champions League final, Keenan’s bar hosted 1,300 fans inside and an additional 700 outside on the sidewalk, where the bar set up an 85-inch television for overflow crowds. He says the World Cup will be an entirely different scale of crowd, and he has already prepped by sending overflow customers to neighboring bars to avoid overcrowding.

In total, roughly 1.2 million international and domestic visitors are expected to travel to the New York-New Jersey host region alone over the course of the tournament. Beyond ticket access, transportation and logistics remain a top concern for many attendees. Thirteen-year-old goalkeeper Baxter Rowland will attend two matches, traveling to one with his family and another with a group of friends on a chartered bus. But even with tickets secured, his mother Alice Baxter says she is already bracing for traffic and parking chaos when she drives to the stadium.

“I think it’s going to be a little bit stressful, and I think it might be difficult for the first few games, at least,” she said. “And hopefully it’ll get better and they’ll work out the kinks before the final here in New Jersey and New York.”

In just a matter of days, the world will turn its attention to North America, and the question on everyone’s mind — whether the U.S. is truly ready to host the world’s biggest sporting event — will finally get an answer.

The global buzz building ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is impossible to ignore. As the most watched and beloved sporting event on the planet, this iteration of soccer’s biggest prize carries unprecedented historical significance: for the first time in the tournament’s 92-year existence, it will be co-hosted across three North American nations — the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Kicking off the month-long tournament on June 11 in Mexico City, the 2026 World Cup will wrap up with the final showdown on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in the U.S. state of New Jersey. This edition also marks a major expansion of the tournament format, growing from 32 to 48 competing nations drawn into 12 four-team groups based on global FIFA rankings.

For new soccer fans new unfamiliar with World Cup rules, the tournament structure follows a straightforward framework. The top two finishing teams from each group advance automatically to the knockout round of 32, with the remaining eight knockout spots going to the highest-ranked third-place teams from the group stage. Match scoring awards three points for a win, one point for a draw, and zero points for a loss, with 16 teams eliminated in the first knockout round.

Standard 90-minute matches are split into two 45-minute halves with a 15-minute halftime break, with stoppage time added at the end of each half to offset time lost to injury treatment, game delays, and mandatory water breaks implemented by FIFA to combat summer heat across the host cities. No penalty shootouts are held during the group stage; if a knockout match ends in a draw after regulation, 30 minutes of extra time is played, and a penalty shootout will determine the winner if the score remains tied.

Host cities are spread across all three co-host nations: Mexico will host matches in Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City; Canada will host in Toronto and Vancouver; and 11 U.S. metropolitan areas — Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle — will welcome teams and fans.

Heading into the tournament, multiple squads enter as top contenders to lift the trophy. Two-time winners France, led by global superstars Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé who consistently dominate Europe’s top club competitions, are widely tipped to reach the final again. 2010 champions Spain are banking on their new generation of young talent, headlined by 18-year-old Lamine Yamal, to claim their second major international title in two years. England, still recovering from back-to-back European Championship final heartbreaks, also enter as a strong contender, while five-time champions Brazil — the most successful nation in World Cup history — are chasing their first title since 2002 to extend their record.

This year’s tournament will feature no shortage of must-watch players. Mbappé, making his third World Cup appearance for France after leading the side to one title and one second-place finish in the last two tournaments, is expected to dominate the competition. Yamal, Spain’s teenaged prodigy, is poised to cement his status as one of soccer’s next global superstars. The tournament will also likely be the final major international appearance for two of the sport’s all-time greats: Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who will turn 39 in June, and Portugal’s 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, whose two-decade rivalry shaped modern men’s soccer. Other standout players to watch include Brazilian playmakers Neymar and Vinícius Júnior, England’s Jude Bellingham, host nation standouts Christian Pulisic (USA) and Alphonso Davies (Canada), South Korea’s Son Heung-min, Ghana’s Antoine Semenyo, and record-breaking Norwegian striker Erling Haaland.

The expanded 48-team format has created a historic moment for underdog soccer nations, with four countries making their World Cup debuts in 2026. Curaçao, a Caribbean nation with just 156,000 residents, will break Iceland’s 2018 record as the smallest country ever to qualify for the tournament. Fellow island nation Cape Verde, with a population of roughly 500,000, will enter as the third smallest qualifying nation in World Cup history. Jordan has also qualified for the first time in its history, with King Abdullah II granting Moroccan-born head coach Jamal Sellami Jordanian citizenship in recognition of his work leading the team to qualification. Rounding out the debutantes is Uzbekistan, led by head coach Fabio Cannavaro — a four-time World Cup participant who captained Italy to the 2006 tournament title.

Beyond on-pitch action, the 2026 World Cup carries layered political and historical context that will shape key group stage matches. When France faces Senegal on June 16, the tie will be framed by their shared colonial history, echoing the 2002 World Cup where Senegal pulled off a legendary upset over the defending champion French side. Ghana and England, another pair tied by colonial history, will face off in Philadelphia on June 23. A June group stage match between Iran and Egypt in Seattle has drawn global attention after the match was branded a “Pride” match by local organizers to celebrate the city’s LGBT community, a move that prompted formal objections from both national federations. Same-sex relations remain criminalized in both nations, and the global football community will closely watch how the teams and FIFA navigate the situation. Iran’s participation also carries extra geopolitical weight amid ongoing tensions with co-host the United States; all of Iran’s group stage matches are held on U.S. soil, but the team has opted to base its training camp in Mexico and commute to matches. The tournament will also welcome two returning sides after long absences: Haiti will play its first World Cup match since 1974, while Scotland returns for the first time in 28 years.

One of the greatest tennis athletes in history has pulled off a remarkable fairy-tale return to competitive play: 44-year-old Serena Williams secured a straight-sets doubles win at London’s iconic Queen’s Club on Tuesday, 1,375 days after stepping away from elite competition. This performance capped off months of growing speculation around a potential comeback, ending with a triumphant opening match that thrilled a sold-out crowd of more than 9,000 passionate fans packed into the Andy Murray Arena.

Teaming up with 19-year-old Canadian rising star Victoria Mboko, Williams and her untested partner upset third seeds Erin Routliffe and Nicole Melichar-Martinez with a 7-6(2), 6-2 victory. The result defied pre-match expectations that the long layoff would leave Williams rusty and out of place against top-level touring opponents. Far from showing signs of decline, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion displayed many of the traits that made her a global icon: her signature serve hit speeds of up to 120mph, and her powerful groundstrokes remained as precise and devastating as fans remembered from her peak.

While Williams admitted after the match that her first touch of the day was a misplayed close-range volley into the net that briefly stoked worries about lost form, any doubts were completely erased within 92 minutes of the first serve. By the final point, it was Williams’ serve that closed out the win, marking her first match victory since the 2022 US Open, when she originally announced she was “evolving away” from professional tennis after a 27-year legendary career.

Speculation around a return began to build last year when Williams’ name reappeared on the official anti-doping testing pool roster, and speculation grew even louder in February 2024 when she was listed on the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s player reinstatement register. Her participation at Queen’s was only confirmed one week before the tournament, sparking a frenzy for tickets that made the clash the most in-demand event of the 2025 grass-court season to date.

In post-match remarks, Williams downplayed any pressure to prove herself at this stage of her life, framing the comeback as a casual, fun opportunity rather than a full-time return to elite competition. “I had nothing better to do, I got tired of sitting at home,” she explained, noting that her children were on summer break from school, making the timing perfect for a return. She added that Queen’s Club had always been a men’s-only venue for majors during her career, so competing at the iconic London location felt like a special new experience she never got to check off her bucket list.

For Williams, one of the biggest draws of the comeback was the chance to let her two young daughters watch her compete in person for the first time. Eight-year-old Olympia and 1-year-old Adira watched from the stands alongside their father, cheering on their mother as she recreated the shots that made her a legend. When asked what her daughters thought of the win, Williams joked that the young girls had different priorities: “Adira wanted to go to the toy store and Olympia wanted to know what’s for dinner.”

From the moment the players walked onto the court, the raucous roar from the sold-out crowd was clearly directed at Williams, but the former world No. 1 stayed grounded and focused, offering only a brief wave before diving into warm-ups and locking in for the match. Though Williams had said just days earlier that winning was “not important” for her return, her legendary competitive instinct quickly shone through: after every winning point, she raised a clenched fist in celebration, conferred with Mboko on tactical adjustments, and roared in excitement when the teenager sealed key points at the net. She praised Mboko heavily after the match, noting that the pair had never played together before but clicked immediately, and that the young star stepped up in high-pressure moments to keep the pair on track.

The opening win at Queen’s kickstarts Williams’ grass-court comeback, with fans already speculating about a potential appearance at the Wimbledon Championships in the coming weeks, though no official announcement has been made about further tournament plans.

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, prepares to kick off in 48 hours, a high-profile immigration incident has thrown the tournament into fresh controversy, raising urgent questions about U.S. border policy, FIFA’s leadership, and the politicization of global football.

Omar Artan, Somalia’s top-ranked international referee and one of 52 officials selected to officiate at this year’s tournament, arrived in Miami last week to join final pre-tournament preparations. Despite holding all required documentation, a valid visa, and a formal invitation from FIFA, Artan endured an 11-hour interrogation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, was detained for several additional hours, and was ultimately forcibly placed on a return flight out of the country. He is now back in Mogadishu, denied the chance to make history as the first Somali referee to work at a men’s senior World Cup.

Artan’s resume, which earned him the coveted World Cup appointment, speaks to his standing as one of the game’s elite officials. Over the past 18 months, he has officiated high-profile matches including the 2025 African Champions League final – the first Somali to ever lead a continental championship final – three matches at the 2025 U-20 World Cup in Chile (including the tournament’s third-place playoff), and multiple group stage matches at back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations tournaments in 2024 and 2025. Speaking before his travel, Artan called his World Cup selection the pinnacle of his career, saying “Every referee’s ambition is to go to the World Cup. When you are selected, you feel that all your hard work was worth it. Years of effort finally made sense.”

The incident has validated long-held fears that U.S. immigration policy under the Trump administration would create discriminatory barriers for visitors from majority-Muslim and African nations ahead of the tournament. Piara Powar, executive director of anti-discrimination football advocacy group Fare, called Artan’s rejection an unprecedented farce. “It is pretty clear that the fears of an ideological and discriminatory visa policy from the US government is being realised,” Powar said. “Never have we seen the farce of an official Fifa referee being refused entry as he arrives for final preparations.”

Artan’s exclusion comes as no surprise to observers tracking the Trump administration’s tightening travel restrictions. In 2017, one of Trump’s first executive orders implemented a travel ban on foreign nationals from seven majority-Muslim nations, including Somalia. That ban was expanded in June 2025 to a full entry ban across all visa categories for 12 countries, which includes not just Somalia, but three World Cup participating nations: DR Congo, Iran, and Haiti. Just weeks before the tournament draw in December 2025, Trump made inflammatory remarks about Somali people, claiming the country “barely exists” and calling Somali immigrants “garbage” that should “go back to where they came from.”

The incident has also exposed a glaring contradiction in FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s approach to host nation compliance. When Indonesia’s Bali governor refused entry to the Israeli men’s U-20 national team ahead of the 2023 U-20 World Cup, FIFA stripped the country of hosting rights entirely, arguing that “any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup, need to have the access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup.” That same policy is not being applied to the U.S., despite multiple entry denials for World Cup participants and officials.

Infantino has cultivated a close political relationship with Trump over the past two years, culminating in the controversial decision to award Trump the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize during the 2026 World Cup draw in December. Critics say this alliance has left FIFA unwilling to push back against U.S. policy, even as it disrupts the core functioning of the tournament. When asked about Artan’s case, FIFA issued a neutral statement saying it “is not involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications.” That response has drawn outrage from football figures, including former England and Arsenal striker Ian Wright, who wrote on Instagram: “Every few hours it’s another story, another story about fans denied, players denied, officials denied, journalists denied, now refs. This is a World Cup of chaos.”

This controversy is just the latest in a string of problems plaguing the build-up to the 2026 tournament, which was billed as a return to normalcy after the politically fraught 2018 World Cup in Russia and 2022 in Qatar. Issues including exorbitant ticket prices, a legal subpoena into FIFA’s ticket sales practices, widespread criticism of overpriced hotel accommodations and transport, and repeated entry denials for fans and officials have left the tournament facing more controversy than its two predecessors.

Beyond Artan’s case, broader concerns persist that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will conduct enforcement operations at or near tournament stadiums, chilling travel for international fans with uncertain immigration status. Fan groups have repeatedly criticized the U.S. for creating unnecessary barriers to entry, a sharp break from past host nation practices that prioritized easy access for traveling fans. Russia eliminated all visa requirements for 2018 World Cup visitors, relying instead on a simple fan ID system tied to match tickets. Qatar used a similar pre-screened Hayya card system that doubled as an entry permit and match access. In contrast, U.S. policy has left many international fans too frustrated to proceed with travel plans. “You’re supposed to be welcoming fans from around the world,” Thomas Concannon, leader of the FSA’s England supporters group, told BBC Sport earlier this year. “And I think at this stage, fans couldn’t feel less welcome.”

The next major test of U.S. policy will come this weekend, when the Iranian national team is scheduled to travel to the U.S. for its first group stage match. Iranian officials have already confirmed that U.S. authorities have denied visas to 16 key backroom staff members, and have only permitted the playing squad to enter the country via cross-border travel from Tijuana, Mexico, with a requirement to depart within 24 hours of each match. U.S. authorities have also revoked all pre-allocated group stage tickets for Iranian fans, a decision that has drawn widespread condemnation. This marks the first time in World Cup history that the host nation is actively engaged in military conflict with a participating nation, after the U.S. joined Israel in large-scale military strikes on Iran earlier this year.

As the tournament prepares to kick off, Powar says Artan’s case raises a fundamental question about who is actually in charge of the 2026 World Cup. “Never have we seen so many World Cup coaches, team operations, fans and even senior administrators within Fifa member associations, subject to so much interrogation and exclusion,” he said. “The disruption is such that one has to ask who is running the World Cup. Is it Fifa or is it the US government with its racially charged immigration policies?” Right now, with one of FIFA’s selected referees barred from entering the country, the answer seems clear: U.S. immigration policy is calling the shots.

After more than three decades since the United States last welcomed the FIFA World Cup, the world’s most-watched sporting spectacle is returning to North American soil this summer, co-hosted jointly by the US, Canada and Mexico. As the kickoff draws near, organizers and local communities are navigating a range of pre-tournament challenges, from lingering geopolitical tensions and widespread frustration over strict visa rules to sticker shock from record-high ticket prices. At the top of many minds remains one pressing question: is the United States truly prepared to shoulder the pressure of co-hosting an event of this unprecedented scale?