The 2026 World Cup begins in the US, Mexico and Canada on the 11th June 2026. To get you in the mood I’ll be picking out some of the best and worst moments from all of the recent competitions. Qatar 2022 was a tournament that began with modest expectations, but delivered, on the footballing side at least, in spades. I’ve picked out four worst and four best ‘moments’ from the tournament, finishing with perhaps the best final of all time. See whether you agree with my selection.
The worst
The Battle of Lusail – Argentina 2-2 Netherlands (Argentina win 4-3 on penalties)
It’s not entirely clear why the Netherlands and Argentina brought so much aggro into their quarter final in 2022. The combative Dutch manager Louis Van Gaal had stirred things up a little with his pre-match comments but, as far as these things go, it was pretty tame stuff. And whilst the two sides had met in previous World Cups, there was little history of real animosity between them. Perhaps it was simply down to the high stakes, with the Netherlands on a run of 19 games unbeaten and feeling this finally was their turn, and Argentina desperate to give the great Lionel Messi the best possible send-off. Whatever the case, the two sides produced a match not only of great drama, but also one of high intensity and ill-temper that generated the most yellow cards ever seen in a World Cup match.
The footballing facts show that Argentina eased into a two-goal lead, before two late goals (the second in the 101st minute!) from Premier League failure Wout Weghorst took the game into extra-time. After this finished without any further scores, a penalty shoot-out ensued with Argentina prevailing by 4-3. The result though was something of a sideshow to the lack of discipline shown by the two sides. In the light of what subsequently happened it’s something of a surprise to find that it took until the 43rd minute for the first card to be shown. Thereafter the referee, Antonio Mateu Lahoz, was at risk of getting RSI from the number of times he had to pull the card in and out of his pocket. There were eight yellows for the Dutch, including two (and hence a red) for Denzel Dumfries, and 10 for the Argentinians, including the manager and assistant manager. The total of 18 was a record for any World Cup game, a game that Jason Burt of The Telegraph summarised nicely: “it was feisty, downright dirty and with huge amounts of gamesmanship.”
The late late alcohol ban
Anheuser-Busch InBev, owners of Budweiser, reportedly paid FIFA around $75m to be the official beer sponsor of the 2022 World Cup. In exchange for this massive sum of money, they could expect to gain worldwide brand exposure, as well as exclusive rights to sell beer during the tournament. Although Qatar, a conservative Muslim nation, is ‘dry’, the organisers of the World Cup had repeatedly assured FIFA and Budweiser that drinking of alcohol would be allowed in stadia during the tournament.
All of this changed a mere two days before the event, when FIFA were forced to issue a terse statement saying that, after discussions with the host country, beer sales had been banned from stadia. Reasons were put forward for this, but why these could not been raised in the 12 years that the event had been in the planning is highly questionable. Budweiser’s immediate response was understated, a tweet stating “Well, this is awkward…” which was then deleted. Their subsequent response will doubtless have been to seek considerable damages from FIFA.
As it happens, the atmosphere in Qatar showed that football may actually be better without alcohol. Crowds were loud, lively and passionate and there was no sign of any trouble. Not necessarily the message that Budweiser had spent their millions to promote.
The missed penalty – England 1-2 France, quarter-final
Harry Kane recently scored his 500th goal in competitive football. He is by most people’s judgement the best English striker since Jimmy Greaves, if not of all time. Amongst his many attributes, he is an excellent taker of penalties. In the Premier League and the Bundesliga he has converted 57 out of 61 from the spot, a success rate of 93.4%, and for England he’s scored 24 out of 28, or 87.5%.
So, when, in the 84th minute of England’s quarter final against France, Kane was called to the penalty spot with his team trailing 1-2, most England fans would have been confident of him levelling the scores. He had, indeed, already scored once from the spot to equalise at 1-1. Perhaps though he was bothered about facing his Tottenham team-mate, French keeper Hugo Lloris, for a second time in the game. Or maybe he, for once, was infected with nerves. Whatever the case, Kane went for the top left corner but instead blasted the ball over the bar. His miss meant that his team, probably the better side over the 90 minutes, once again exited at the business end of the tournament. Having said all of that, if he gets a chance to redeem himself in 2026, I will be putting money on him to do it.
Staging it in Qatar
Money talks in football, perhaps nowhere more so than within the governing organisation, FIFA. It was undoubtedly money that led FIFA to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a tiny desert nation with no serious football tradition, a highly questionable human rights record and extreme summer temperatures.
The controversy began with the decision itself, where it was alleged that millions of dollars in bribes were paid to members of the FIFA Executive Committee to secure the vote. Although a FIFA-commissioned enquiry cleared Qatar of wrongdoing, the lead investigator on the enquiry resigned claiming his findings had been whitewashed, and several members of the Committee have since been banned for corruption.
There were, of course, other significant concerns:
• The human cost of building the almost entirely new infrastructure needed – some reports suggested thousands of migrant workers died in construction, and that many had worked in near slave-labour conditions.
• The repressive culture in Qatar, where homosexuality remains illegal, and women’s rights are severely constrained.
• “Greenwashing” claims – The tournament was meant to be carbon-neutral, but most experts judged it to be anything but.
• Domestic rescheduling – The tournament could not be played in the summer due to the heat, so leagues around the world had to make big changes to their domestic schedules to accommodate the winter timescale.
Ultimately, all the controversy fell to the background once the football started. Most football fans, to be honest, care little about human rights, and even those that do will park their concerns if the action on the pitch is entertaining enough. Qatar achieved what they wanted – they appeared to the watching world as a modern, successful society. And the action on the pitch was very entertaining.
The Best of Qatar 2022
Germany’s embarrassment
When England beat West Germany in 1966 to win the World Cup final it was the first time the two nations had met at the tournament. Shockingly, for England fans at least, it remains the last time that we beat them in the finals. A heart-breaking loss in the 1970 quarter-final was followed by a draw in 1982 (that contributed to England not proceeding), then an even-more heart-breaking defeat on penalties in 1990, before a bit of a rout in 2010. As a consequence, Germany is probably the team that England most like to see fail.
We got what we wanted in 2022 when Germany failed to qualify for the round of 16. Their qualifying group did not appear particularly taxing, facing Spain alongside Japan (ranked 24th) and Costa Rica (31st). Germany, though, got off to a terrible start when they suffered a shock 1-2 defeat to Japan in their opener, despite having 76% of the possession. The Germans could only draw with Spain in their second match, so needed not only to beat Costa Rica in their final group match, but also for Japan to lose to Spain. In a game in which Spain incredibly had over 80% of the ball, Japan won again by 2-1 and Germany were eliminated. It was almost as good as England winning.
The rise of the minnows
2022 was perhaps the tournament that delivered more surprise results than any World Cup in history. It started with the first match of the tournament, third ranked Argentina losing to 51st ranked Saudi Arabia, but it was not finished there. Tunisia beat France, Japan beat both Germany and Spain, Morocco’s historic run saw them beat Belgium, Spain and Portugal and Cameroon beat top-ranked Brazil (albeit in a dead rubber).
It was generally a good competition for the smaller nations. With the exception of Canada and host country, Qatar, every team got at least a point in the group stage and there were only a couple of games that were absolute routs. Many (including the author) will criticise the relentless expansion of the World Cup, indeed there will be 48 teams in 2026, but 2022 did show that (nearly) every dog can have its day.
The Moroccan adventure
For many years now, pundits have been predicting the coming of Africa in the World Cup. With more and more African players featuring across the top European leagues, and more investment in coaching and training across the continent, it has seemed only a matter of time that an African nation would be challenging in the later stages of the tournament.
Until 2022, however, the best that any African nation could claim was a slot in the quarter finals – Cameroon (famously with Roger Milla) in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana (cruelly denied by Suarez’s deliberate handball) in 2010. The conditions on offer in Qatar might have offered them something of an advantage, but in the event only two of the five African teams made it out of their qualifying groups – Senegal and Morocco, who topped theirs. After Senegal were despatched in the round of 16 by England (comfortable 3-0 winners) it left Morocco last man standing and with the tough task of taking on Spain in the round of 16.
Morocco were dogged and Spain toothless. Despite dominating possession (77%), the Spaniards created only one shot on target. Faced with penalties they crumbled, so Morocco progressed to face Portugal. In an almost carbon-copy of the Spain match. Portugal also dominated possession (73% to Spain’s 77%) but failed to really threaten the target. Meanwhile, Morocco scored from a great leap by En-Nesyri. Morocco had made it to the semi-final, the first African and the first Arab nation to do so, and without their talisman and best player, Mo Salah, injured before the tournament.
Their adventure ended here against France, but they had finally broken the African glass ceiling. Will they be the first of many. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
The greatest final – Argentina 3-3 France (Argentina win 4-2 on penalties)
Prior to 2022, Lionel Messi was indisputably one of the greatest football players of all time. One thing that stood between him and being labelled the best ever, however, was his record at the World Cup. In his four appearances, Argentina had been eliminated twice in the quarter finals (2006 and 2010), narrowly beaten in the final (by Germany in 2014), then suffered an embarrassing round of 16 loss to France in 2018. 2022 was likely to be Messi’s last chance to join the ranks of Maradona, Charlton and Pele, legends of the game who had all held the cherished trophy.
His campaign started poorly, when Argentina suffered a seismic shock in their first game, losing to the totally-unfancied Saudi Arabia. Perhaps this was the wake-up call they needed, and they went on to beat Mexico and Poland to top their group, before despatching Australia in the round of 16. It took penalties for them to get past the Netherlands in the ‘battle of Lusail’ (see above) before a relatively comfortable win over Croatia took them into the final. Particularly good news for Argentina was that Messi seemed to be firing on all cylinders, with five goals and three assists going into the final.
Argentina’s opponents were France, who had knocked them out in 2018. France had, like Argentina, suffered a surprise loss in their qualified group (to Tunisia once they had already qualified), but otherwise looked a very strong all-round side. Their not-so-secret weapon was 23-year-old striker, Kylian Mbappe, breakthrough star of the 2018 World Cup, and well on his way to all-time-great status.
The final was a classic, although it took a while to come to the boil. In the first half, it looked a bit of a stroll for the South Americans, goals for Messi (penalty) and Di Maria, giving them a 2-0 lead. The Argentinians continued to control the game for much of the second half, with France struggling to create any meaningful chances. The French were given a lifeline, though, in the 80th minute when Otamendi conceded a penalty that was converted by Mbappe. Less than two minutes later, they had equalised, another goal smartly converted by Mbappe. The final few minutes of the game were frantic with both teams coming close, but the score remained 2-2 so the watching world was granted 30 minutes of extra time.
Extra time saw the Argentinians on top again and, after missing two gilt-edged chances, they looked to have won it when, in the 108th minute, Messi finished from close range. France though were not beaten and came back again, winning a second penalty with only three minutes on the clock that Mbappe converted coolly to bring the scores level. There was still time for more thrills and spills – great chances for both sides – but the game finished 3-3 so it went to penalties.
Even the penalty shoot out was dramatic. After (predictably) Messi and Mbappe had converted, the game was really won by the skill and (borderline unacceptable) gamesmanship of Argentine keeper, Emiliano Martinez. He saved one and probably psyched out another Frenchman, and his team ran out 4-2 winners. Argentina and their great captain, Lionel Messi, had crowned his career in the best possible manner.