There is no short­age of in­ter­na­tion­al cognoscen­ti of­fer­ing World Cup analy­sis for tour­na­ment fol­low­ers to wade through so you do not need mine. I will state the ob­vi­ous, though - 2026 is the most com­mer­cial­ized, mon­e­tized and politi­cized World Cup ever. If you are lucky, you have ac­cess to a paid stream­ing ser­vice, a visa to en­ter one of the host coun­tries, or a high priced tick­et to watch a match live. If not, FI­FA has adopt­ed a Pon­tius Pi­late stance and washed its hands of you and your prob­lems. FI­FA claims “foot­ball unites the world and brings peo­ple to­geth­er to cel­e­brate the beau­ti­ful game”. But in 2026, World Cup foot­ball - which should be freely avail­able to or­di­nary work­ing peo­ple via pub­lic tele­vi­sion, easy en­try in­to host coun­tries and rea­son­ably priced tick­ets - is now a com­mod­i­ty with re­strict­ed ac­cess.