The biggest World Cup in history kicked off this week — an expanded tournament stretched across North America, six weeks long, and arguing with itself before a knockout match had even been played. Empty seats, ticket prices, FIFA’s politics, and the question of whether bigger is actually better dominated the football feeds.
The World Cup surfaced in dozens of episodes the week of kickoff. Here’s the story they told.
Too Big to Feel?
On The Pat Kenny Show, the opening framed the central tension of the new format:
“We are four games into the expanded World Cup with the first results already, I think, offering a glimpse into what promises to be a fascinating six-week tournament.” Fascinating — but, the show asked, also diluted?
Football writer Miguel Delaney made the case that scale has a cost:
“It’s more, I suppose, the size of it just dilutes what the World Cup used to be.” More teams, more games, more days — and, in his telling, less of the concentrated drama that made the tournament feel singular.
Follow the Money
Delaney tied the off-pitch controversies back to a single theme:
“…just how much of it has been about revenue and just how greedy FIFA have become.” Ticket prices, half-empty stadiums, scheduling in punishing heat — all, he argued, downstream of the same commercial logic.
The show also pressed on the political backdrop — including the host-nation dynamics:
“How do you see Trump’s influence in this tournament in terms of how it’s been organised and how it’s being presented?” A World Cup that, for the first time in a while, doubled as a geopolitical stage.
The Veteran’s Reassurance
On The Louis Theroux Podcast, England legend Gary Lineker offered the long view — he’s seen this movie before:
“All the talk before the World Cups is always about the issues and possible issues.” There’s always something, he said — and then:
“Once it starts, we concentrate on the football and it’s all’s well with the world again.” The reliable arc of every tournament: dread, then the first great game, then forgiveness.
The Bigger Picture
Four games in, the 2026 World Cup is exactly what its critics and its defenders both predicted — too big, too commercial, and, once the whistle blew, impossible to look away from. The arguments about FIFA won’t end. Neither, as Lineker promised, will the football’s habit of winning the room back. Six weeks to go.
Search for more podcast coverage of the World Cup on Audioscrape.
