Everything You Need to Know About the World Cup

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Natalie Kitroeff** (0:27)
From The New York Times, this is The Sunday Daily. I'm Natalie Kitroeff. We're coming to you a day early because tomorrow our colleagues at the interview are going to drop an episode with Scott Peli from 60 Minutes. He was just fired from CBS this week after a blow up with the program's new executive producer. So that's tomorrow. On today's show, we're going to talk about what's set to be the most watched sports event on the planet, the 2026 World Cup. There's been no shortage of controversy surrounding this tournament, from exorbitant ticket prices to legal threats over those prices, to the geopolitical tensions hanging over it all. But when the games begin this coming week, the focus will inevitably turn to the competition, which is bigger than ever this year. Billions of people will be watching from all over the globe, screaming at their televisions, parading in the streets, painting their faces and beating drums in stadiums.
So, to get us all ready for this World Cup, our global soccer correspondent Tariq Panja tells us everything we need to know about the teams, the games and the dramas that are about to captivate the world. It's Saturday, June 6th.
Tariq, welcome to the Sunday Daily from Across the Pond. It's wonderful to have you here.

**Tariq Panja** (2:01)
It's wonderful to be with you.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (2:02)
So, you have been covering soccer for a very long time. How many World Cups have you been to, remind me?

**Tariq Panja** (2:09)
I've been to sixth and the next one will be my seventh.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (2:13)
That's so many.

**Tariq Panja** (2:14)
It sounds like a lot. You age with these tournaments as well. I'm a very old man now.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (2:18)
Yeah. Were you a baby at your first one?

**Tariq Panja** (2:21)
Yeah, almost. I went as a teenager with my brother. We had a fantastic summer in France in 1998

**Natalie Kitroeff** (2:28)
Who were you rooting for?

**Tariq Panja** (2:29)
I'm from England, so we were rooting for England, but it was just being at the World Cup and around this international armada of fans was just fantastic.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (2:39)
Okay. You are something of a fan. I, to situate myself, am the daughter of a fan. My dad is Greek and I think it would be an understatement to say that soccer is the single most important thing in his entire life.
For our purposes here today, we are coming to you, Tariq, because you're not just someone who's been to a lot of these things. You are an expert on this tournament. From my understanding, the one we're about to see is very different. It's bigger than ever. For those of us who don't think about this every single day, I want to break this down. Let's start with what is new here. What makes this World Cup special?

**Tariq Panja** (3:22)
This is the biggest tournament in terms of host nations. The number of host nations, three. That's never happened before. You have Mexico, Canada, and the United States of America, which will have the bulk of the games, and all across the US. So you're going from the west coast with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, listed as host cities there. Then coming across, you've got Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Kansas City, and then Miami, Boston, Philadelphia. Then we have the final, which will be in New York. Well, actually, in New Jersey.
So that's a lot of places.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (4:06)
So many different cities. It's insane.

**Tariq Panja** (4:09)
Yeah.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (4:09)
Okay. There's also more teams, right? It's not just more cities, more places, more countries, but more actual participants.
Yeah.

**Tariq Panja** (4:18)
This is the other great innovation of this tournament. This is the first time we're going to have 48 teams at a FIFA World Cup. It has been 32 since that first World Cup that I went to in 1998 in France. And now we've added more teams, 48 teams. It's arguably the easiest World Cup to qualify for as well, because you have more teams.
However, unfortunately for them, they're not going to see Italy.

**Natalie Kitroeff** (4:47)
Yeah. They somehow found a way to not qualify for the easiest one to qualify for, which also includes Greece, which is my dad's team. So RIP to us.