Expansive views from an expanded World Cup
Christian Science Monitor · C · trust 52/100
With 48 teams participating, the 2026 soccer competition is growing an even wider global audience – alongside appreciation for the diversity of players, their backstories, and expressions of universal human values.
| Danilson Sequeira/Reuters Fans in Praia, Cape Verde, cheer for their national team, June 21. In its first World Cup tournament, the Atlantic Ocean island nation held three countries to a draw, before bowing out to 2022 champion Argentina, at 3-2. Loading...
Long after the final whistle blows at the Argentina-Spain final World Cup match Sunday, fans, players, and sports pundits are likely to keep replaying and debating the best shots, the controversial calls, and most touching scenes of victory or defeat.
But beyond the athletic highs and lows, this year’s competition again confirms “the beautiful game” as a global catalyst that brings out the best of humanity – expressed in purpose and pluck on the pitch; and in joy, courtesy, and hospitality in the stands and outside the stadium walls.
During a time of intense geopolitical tensions and tightening national borders, such transnational victories for universal values are worth celebrating – along with whichever team wins on July 19.
As the Monitor’s Mark Sappenfield reported last week , the 2026 competition has firmly embedded the “world” in the World Cup. Forty of the 48 national teams have at least one player born in another country, with nearly 300 holding dual nationality. (Four sets of brothers are representing different teams.)
In addition to transnational diversity, there’s also been a marked openness toward expressions of faith and thanks. During the group stage, the team from tiny Curaçao, after a 7-1 loss to Germany, circled in prayer on the pitch. Within moments, two German players joined them.
“We are opponents during the match, but after ... we are all Christians and brothers,” German midfielder Felix Nmecha told the media. “We simply shared a small prayer together because we are all very grateful.”
Muslim players have fallen to their knees in sujood , an expression of individual gratitude to God, to celebrate plays. The Moroccan-born American referee did the same after he finished officiating the Argentina-England semifinal.
Not all has been blissful brotherhood, though, especially on social media. Intense moments on the field or among teams or fans unfamiliar with each other have spawned racist or divisive comments. But several players and commentators have been quick to rebut those.
And FIFA, for its part, would do well to improve affordability and access for fans in future competitions. This is especially relevant as the global fanbase is likely to keep growing with the expansion of the competition roster to 48 teams (from the previous 32).
Knowledgeable enthusiasts had worried this move could dilute the quality of play and produce too many lopsided matchups. But first-time qualifier Cape Verde showed that need not be the case: The team held Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia to draws and gave 2022 champion Argentina a scare in the first knockout round.
The World Cup’s expansion – or, put differently, its greater inclusion – has offered teachable moments. In addition to possibly having to look up some new entrants on a map, audiences have learned those teams’ and players’ backstories.
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“That visibility matters. International sport gives [small] states a stage they do not otherwise possess,” according to soccer fan and former U.S. diplomat Steven E. Hendrix. On the soccer pitch, “a fragile state can show resilience; ... a country known abroad for crisis can remind the world that its people are more than their suffering,” he wrote in the Fair Observer last month.
Such expansive views of individuals and nations are worth holding on to from each World Cup to the next.
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