After years of planning, the 2026 World Cup is finally here.The tournament in North America kicks off on Thursday and will almost certainly be the most-viewed sports event ever, watched by millions (or more likely billions) of fans across the globe.But it also offers a huge opportunity to attract a whole new audience, particularly across the United States, where soccer has long been on the rise but still does not dominate the sporting landscape as it does in so many other countries.This will be a World Cup watched by diehards and those who have never engaged with the game before. With that in mind, we have compiled this article as a guide to everything you could possibly want to know about the tournament, from the most basic questions for those who have not watched the sport to far more intricate details about how teams play, the politics of this competition, the ticketing situation and much more.If you are a keen fan, you might want to skip the first section entirely — you can use the tabs along the bottom to jump to the part(s) that most interest you. The sections in this article are:
Beginners’ World Cup questions
The on-field action
Off-field organization
Tickets and cost
