US Reshaping Global Football Ahead of 2026 World Cup
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- The 2026 World Cup kicks off June 11, co-hosted by the US, Mexico, and Canada — the third consecutive major football tournament held in the US after the 2024 Copa America and 2025 Club World Cup.
- Donald Trump publicly argued the sport should be called "football" not "soccer" and attended the Club World Cup final in New Jersey, where Chelsea beat PSG before 81,118 fans.
- Premier League viewership in the US hit records, with the season's opening weekend the most-watched on record, audiences up 13% over the past three years, and 12 matches in 2024/25 surpassing one million viewers.
- LaLiga scheduled Barcelona vs Villarreal in Miami for December 2025 as the first official league match abroad but cancelled amid backlash, calling the scrapped project a "historic and unparalleled opportunity" for internationalisation.
- American owners now hold majorities at 11 of 20 Premier League clubs, with celebrity investors Tom Brady (Birmingham), JJ Watt (Burnley), and Snoop Dogg (Swansea) deepening US financial and cultural influence in English football.
- The 2026 World Cup final will feature an NFL-style halftime show and mandatory drinks breaks that effectively turn halves into quarters — a US entertainment template exported to FIFA's flagship event.
- MLS will align its calendar with European seasons starting next year, kicking off in late summer and concluding the following spring, a structural shift the Chicago Fire's Gregg Broughton says will let the league "accelerate even further."
Why it matters: Eleven of twenty Premier League clubs under American majority ownership gives US stakeholders unprecedented voting power over promotion rules, transfer systems, and competitive formats, while the 2026 World Cup's NFL-style halftime show provides the largest platform yet for American sports entertainment to reshape FIFA's flagship product.
