FIFA World Cup: Five key takeaways from 2026 edition won by Spain

Published 20 July 2026 · sports

Spain beat Argentina to football’s World Cup crown, but talking points remain. Should there be 48 or 64 teams? Hydration breaks? The ‘dark arts’? The

Spain beat Argentina to football’s World Cup crown, but talking points remain. Should there be 48 or 64 teams? Hydration breaks? The ‘dark arts’? The biggest FIFA World Cup in history has come to a close, and most would agree Spain deserved their victory – certainly in the final against Argentina. The 2026 edition had an additional spotlight on it given one of the host nations – and the team staging the final – the United States, were involved in a joint war with Israel on one of the competitors, Iran. Even with the ceasefire agreed on the eve of the competition, political turmoil dominated the headlines, with visa issues also proving problematic not only for the Iranian contingent, but also for fans from around the globe. The length of the expanded 48-team tournament makes many of those headlines feel like a lifetime ago, although hostilities between the US and Iran have now resumed, long after the Iranian team exited the tournament at the group stage. Footballing matters mostly took centre stage as the World Cup wore on, although – as ever – the blurring between sport and politics was never far away. With matters on the field now at an end, however, Al Jazeera takes a look at five of the biggest matters left in question as the game moves forward. Does the FIFA World Cup merit 48 teams – let alone 64? There is no doubt that the biggest footballing concern for this edition of the World Cup was the saturation of teams and games. It turned out to be the least of anyone’s worries, and indeed gave us some of the highlights of the tournament. From debutants to overachievers, the 2026 edition proved that the gap between the very best teams in the world and the rest has narrowed dramatically. In practice, it was only one more game for the eventual finalists to play than had been the case since the expansion to 32 teams for the 1998 edition in France. It seems remarkable now to think that the World Cup was competed for by fewer than 32 teams in the 1994 edition given the rapid expansion and improvement of the professional game around the world. That’s so much the case that there is now barely a grumble that the 2026 edition had 48 teams.

For fans it meant more games, more stories, and more new players to look out for. Crucially, though, for those competitors it meant more opportunity – and that is something sport must never turn its back on. Cape Verde won the ⁠supporters’ hearts after the debutant band of journeymen professionals and raw youngsters held Spain and Uruguay to draws and forced Argentina into extra time. FIFA insisted, amid criticism of not only the expansion but also the cost to fans, that the World Cup is their opportunity to make the money they need to continue the game’s growth across the globe. For one more game for the eventual winner, and that has to be the major concern, any downside seems churlish. The conversation now turns to a 64-team World Cup at the 2030 edition. That, crucially, would not add to the number of games for the finalists because only the top two teams would progress from a 16-group initial phase to the last 32. In effect, that doesn’t change anything from the knockout stage onwards. It is hard to imagine the nations like Italy, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ireland would argue against a further expansion – especially the former, who have missed the last three World Cup finals. Hydration breaks – should they stay, or should they go? The controversy surrounding hydration breaks was twofold: Did players need them and, as some alleged, were they only introduced to offer more advert time for television broadcaster partners? Whatever the reasoning, the answer from fans in the stadiums was overwhelming. Boos constantly greeted the hydration breaks. The feeling across that game was that in two 45-minute halves, the breaks disrupted the flow of the play too much. Scientists, coaches and FIFA are likely to strongly argue that they continue for summer World Cups, with global temperatures reaching dangerous levels for the players. There are no plans for the breaks to be introduced to the domestic leagues, where the game is mostly a winter sport. But whether the international tournaments will follow suit, for their summer stagings, remains to be seen. Rules and regs must be tightened for 2030 World Cup The most controversial moment of the competition was undoubtedly the suspension of the red card that was shown to USA forward Folarin Balogun.