If you think sport and politics don’t mix, you may want to give Friday’s World Cup draw a miss.
Next summer’s tournament will be the biggest FIFA has ever staged. There will be more teams, more games, more fans, more host countries, more host cities, more expensive tickets and more money to be made.
It will be about power and glory, with a front three of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Donald Trump.
Make no mistake. Gianni Infantino may be the FIFA president but Trump is the president of the richest and most powerful country in the world and he has taken a very real interest in the World Cup his country is co-hosting next summer.
In different circumstances, Friday’s draw would be taking place in Las Vegas but it appears Trump had other ideas and that’s why the most powerful men in world football – and they are still nearly all men – are heading to Washington this week and not the self-proclaimed entertainment capital of the world.
The entertainment on offer at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has usually been of a more cerebral nature than middle-aged men pulling balls out of glass bowls but that was before Trump made himself chairman of the board in February.
US President Donald Trump and FIFA chief Gianni Infantino with the World Cup trophy at the Oval Office of the White House
Friday’s glitzy draw will be hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum and comedian Kevin Hart and feature performances by Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger. Bringing down the curtain will be Village People, singing the MAGA Trump anthem YMCA which last topped the charts when FIFA were holding the draw for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.
Of course, the only point of a draw is to find out who your team is going to play but Trump’s presence at FIFA’s big show will guarantee front page as well as back page coverage in Saturday’s papers.
Expect to see pictures of a beaming Gianni Infantino handing Trump something called the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. Quite what that has to do with football is anyone’s guess but Infantino’s doctrine has always been to get as close as possible to the leaders of the countries hosting World Cups.
With that in mind, nobody should rule out Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia receiving the prize at the draw for the 2034 World Cup.
The draw, the packed schedule and the ticket prices…
As for the mechanics of the draw itself, it’s pretty simple – or as simple as things can be when it’s the first 48-team World Cup and there are 64 teams involved due to the fact that 22 countries can still get the six remaining places via play-offs in the spring.
The teams have been divided into four pots with England in Pot 1, Scotland in Pot 3 and play-off hopefuls Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland in Pot 4.
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Sky Sports’ chief correspondent Kaveh Solhekol explains the way the 2026 FIFA World Cup will introduce a new ‘tennis seed’ style format to the draw which could see England avoid the top seeded teams until the latter stages of the tournament.
On Friday we will find out who is in each group of four but the match schedule – the venues and kick-off times for each game – will not be announced until Saturday afternoon.
With the media spotlight burning brightly on Trump it would be easy forget that this World Cup is also being played in Mexico and Canada. The bulk of the games – 78 – are in the US with 13 each in Canada and Mexico, including the opening game on June 11 in Mexico City.
From then, the games come thick and fast. There are group games until June 27 and between June 13 and June 23 there will be four games a day instead of the usual three.
There are 16 more countries and 40 more games as well as a new knockout Round of 32 for the top two in each group and the eight best third-placed teams. In total there will be 33 days of games and the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey New York is on July 19, some 38 days after the opening game.
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Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol explains the ‘unprecedented decision’ for Cristiano Ronaldo to play at the start of Portugal’s World Cup so long as he does not reoffend.
Thanks to FIFA’s controversial decision to use dynamic pricing, ticket prices are going to become a major talking point for the next seven months. With the cost dependent on demand, expect to see tickets at eye-watering prices, especially for the most high-profile games. FIFA say eight per cent of tickets at every game will be set aside for each team to be distributed to fans – without dynamic pricing – by national associations.
FIFA’s official ticket reselling platform will be just as controversial as dynamic pricing. Tickets can be sold on the platform, with the seller setting the price and FIFA taking a 15 per cent commission from the seller and a 15 per cent commission from the buyer.
Of course, FIFA will say it is a non-profit organisation and any money it makes is reinvested in the game. They will say that’s for the good of the game, but so is having as many affordable tickets as possible for as many fans as possible.
So, what can we expect from the World Cup next summer? You can put your money on Ronaldo playing when he was set to be banned, high temperatures, expensive tickets, enormous NFL stadiums – and Infantino declaring it “the best World Cup ever” when it’s all over.
