Overview
- The tournament opens Thursday at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca with Mexico facing South Africa in the first match of the expanded 48-team, 104-game event.
- FIFA and IFAB have introduced new match measures such as mandatory cooling breaks, a 10-second requirement to complete substitutions and expanded VAR interventions to speed play and protect players.
- Organisers are handling active off-field problems: a CNTE teachers’ protest briefly blocked a route to Azteca, a Somali referee was denied entry to the United States, and Iran has based operations in Tijuana because of U.S. restrictions.
- Commercial and access pressures continue as Zee secured late broadcast and streaming rights in India via Unite8 and Zee5, while U.S. state investigations are probing ticket dynamic pricing and resale practices that could affect fans.
- The expanded format raises scheduling and rotation challenges for teams and will test logistics and staffing across 16 host cities, with knockouts starting at the end of June and the final set for July 19 in New Jersey.