Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ in 1986, South Africa’s Macarena dance in 2010, and the 2018 French squad.
These are the FIFA World Cup’s most memorable moments, this is how a tournament can bring nations together to form sporting greatness.
This year the FIFA World Cup returns, played in the United States, with commentators saying it is set to be the biggest yet.
Representing their country is something all professional footballers strive for, to make it to the largest stage of talent, patriotism and heart.
For spectators, there is nothing like watching your country prove itself in the world arena.
With over a month of games being played in the United States, the tournament will also exceed borders, with games lined up in both Canada and Mexico. The event is not only tipped to boost tourism around North America but bring in record-breaking audiences to watch the classiest footballers the world has to offer.
North America offers many advantages for the tournament through its enormous stadium and venue capacities.
These include Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Dallas’ AT&T Stadium and San Francisco’s Levi’s Stadium. All three of the venues hold over 70,000 seats in capacity and are known to have a strong transport infrastructure, which further implies how the attendance rates will be increased this year.
Source: FOX Sports
The World Cup is currently being compared to the Super Bowl, arguably the biggest American sporting event each year.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino told FOX Sports that the World Cup will exceed Super Bowl numbers.
“The impact will be global,” Mr Infantino said.
“The Super Bowl, which is fantastic, has 120-130 million viewers; the World Cup has six billion viewers.
“A World Cup is 104 Super Bowls in one month. That’s three Super Bowls a day. This happens from here and this can happen every week if you have the best league in the world.”
One of the biggest drivers of World Cup audiences is national team involvement.
Australia’s previous World Cup run to the Round of 16 in Qatar 2022 reignited interest in the men’s national team, and viewers tend to return in large numbers whenever the Socceroos are competitive.
The recent success through the women’s Australian team has also made the game grow in popularity amongst younger Australians. Football in Australia has become much more mainstream and the percentage of Australians planning to watch the Socceroos correlates with this.
Recent research commissioned by the Watchers’ Rights Association (WRA) confirms that at least 3 in 4 Australians are planning to watch the World Cup this June. The data below proves that fans will go to extreme lengths.
Source: SBS
An interesting point to make is that 71 per cent of Australians believe that their employers should allow them to watch the World Cup while on the clock, with 53 per cent of Australian bosses agreein
This year, the World Cup games in Australia are much more manageable to watch compared to previous years. The early morning and midday timeslots are going to boost viewership, along with the exciting young talent present within the Australian squad.
Shoalhaven football player and enthusiast Sebastian Tunney-Roberts confirms this claim.
“I will be making sure I’ll be watching every game I can and cheering the boys on,” Mr Tunney-Roberts said.
“We’ve got a lot of talents coming through the ranks nowadays…I feel recently we’ve got players coming through all the top leagues in Europe, obviously seeing players like Mo[hamed] Toure and Nestory Irankunda… it’s their chance to show how good they really are in the World Cup.
“[The timeslots] are a lot better than it was in Qatar a couple years ago, most Australians will be up and about watching these games and obviously on the weekend as well, so people off work can sit down whether it be at home or out and about with friends and family and can watch the Socceroos get some good results in.”
Through the range of channels and services able to stream every game live, anyone worldwide can tune in and watch.
Data from Numerator shows an interesting trend amongst the audiences intending to watch the upcoming World Cup. The most popular plan for 71 per cent of viewers is to watch at home alone or with household members.
However, with over a month of matches with varying prospects and nations, over half of intended viewers also plan to watch in more social settings.
The tournament has implemented an expansion this year, with an extra sixteen teams competing for the trophy. This means the match numbers have also gone up with an increase from 64 to 104 matches being played.
In turn, the extra nations being represented along with their supporters are going to boost the overall viewership and attendance.
Statista data journalist Felix Richter said the expansion will prove beneficial for the tournament.
“With the addition of the sixteen national squads, there is more fans to account for and more televisions being switched on and more people making an effort to watch their team represent them,” Mr Richter said.
“It is one of the biggest sporting events for a reason, [FIFA] knew what they were doing and they know how to get more people watching.
“We can see the numbers the past World Cups have brought in but with the inclusion of other nations, there is a significant estimated increase for this year.”
The 2026 FIFA World Cup officially kicks off with Mexico vs South Africa on June 12. The Socceroos will play their first match against Turkey on June 14 at 2pm.
