On Thursday 11 June, the 23rd FIFA World Cup will kick off in the fabled Mexico City Stadium when co-hosts Mexico play South Africa. It will conclude on Sunday 19 July when the final is held at MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey. In between there will be another 102 matches to see who competes in the final. The matches will be held across 16 stadia, with 11 in USA, 3 in Mexico and 2 in Canada.

It will be the largest tournament yet with 48 teams competing in 12 groups to reach the newly introduced Round of 32. There has been an extra round added meaning there are 5 matches between the qualifying rounds and the final for the eventual winners to navigate. The extended nature of this tournament gives it a ‘lucky dip’ element and makes it even more challenging to decide who the contenders may be.

There are four first time nations completing in Curacao, Cape Verde, Jordan and Uzbekistan. Curacao will become the smallest nation ever to play at the World Cup. This is a country smaller than the Isle of Man, with a population of 150,000. Although in Tahith Chong they have a player who has played for Manchester United. Curacao will play the 2014 champions, Germany, in the group stages, while Cape Verde will play 2010 champions, Spain. Cape Verde, which is a collection of 10 islands off the coast of Africa, will be the third smallest country to play in the World Cup and only gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

No shortage of controversies and potential problems!

As it always seems to do, this World Cup has thrown up several talking points already. Not withstanding the fact that the host nation are currently at war with one of the other nations and there are other countries which are involved as well.

Another big controversy has been around the price of tickets and the cost of travelling to the venues, which has made the tournament prohibitive to most fans. Even the President of the United States declared that he would not be willing the pay the prices FIFA had set!

The BBC calculated that it could cost as much as £6500 for an England supporter to follow the team to the final, or £22,300 for a family of 4. For Scottish fans the cost is even higher at around £7,500 per person (Johnson, 2026). This accounts for tickets, travel, air fares and hotel accommodation.

Due to the tournament being held across an entire continent it is also considered that this World Cup will be the most polluting World Cup ever. Calculations suggest an England fan following their team to the final would produce a carbon footprint of 3.5 tonnes which is equivalent to the amount of energy required to heat a UK home for 19 months (Gornall, 2026).

Who will win the 2026 World Cup?

Firstly, there are two home nations competing in England and Scotland.

Scotland will compete in their first finals since 1998 and as they did then they will play Brazil. It will be their third match after playing Haiti and Morocco and promises to be a great occasion as it will be held at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The presence of Brazil (ranked fifth in the world) and Morocco (ranked eleventh) make this a tough group, but Scotland have a squad with some players with extensive international experience and should get through to the knockout stages.

England appointed Thomas Tuchel, a German coach, with the specific aim of winning the tournament for the first time in 60 years so there is pressure on the squad to deliver. Tuchel chose a slightly controversial squad with some big name omissions and surprise inclusions, and they will look to win a group with Croatia, Ghana and Panama as challengers.

It is impossible to predict a winner but a prediction of the final 8 might be easier. There are 5 teams who should be safe bets: Argentina and Brazil from South America; and Spain, France and England from Europe. Germany, Belgium and Norway will also be competitive but as for the other 3 teams we are plumping for Netherlands, Türkiye and, as surprise outsiders, Senegal.

Netherlands are chock full of experienced Premier League players and have a formidable manager in Ronald Koeman. Turkey have some outstanding young players and Senegal were impressive in the African Cup of Nations, despite being disqualified in the final for walking off the pitch in protest against a refereeing decision. While Senegal also have a squad full of current and former Premier League players such as Sadio Mané, Nicolas Jackson, Ismaila Sarr, Iliman Ndiaye and Pape Matar Sarr they face another of the toughest groups with France and Norway as opponents. If they can progress from this group they could be difficult to beat in the knockout phase.

Who will be the breakout stars?

Desire Doue of Paris St Germain and France, and Lamine Yamal of Barcelona and Spain are already stars of the global game despite being aged 20 and 18 respectively. Doue may not start every game as the French are blessed with attacking talent and our first player to watch in particular. That is Michael Olise, once of Crystal Palace, who recently became the second player in the German Bundesliga to score 15 goals and make 15 assists in a season. Olise was born in London and could have represented England at this World Cup. The second player is Yan Diomande of the Ivory Coast who is a speedy left winger with fast feet and an excellent goal scoring record. Thirdly, Tottenham Hotspur fans will be eager to see how well 19-year-old Luka Vušković plays for Croatia. Vušković, a central defender, has been on loan to Hamburg in the Bundesliga for the past two seasons, and his performances have attracted interest from clubs like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. A successful World Cup could see Vušković back at Spurs as part of a comprehensive squad re-build.

It's not going to be dull!

Despite making these predictions there are always unforeseen events that make and shape a tournament. There is the hot weather, temporary grass pitches, some new refereeing guidelines to navigate and changing regulations around VAR – what could possibly go wrong?!

We hope you enjoy the tournament as it unfolds. There are bound to be some big shocks, thrills, and interesting discussion points.