Everything You Need to Know About the World Cup

The Daily

The New York Times

News, Daily News

4.3 • 107.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 2026 World Cup is about to descend on North America — spread across three countries, with 48 teams, and 104 games, and with billions of fans across the globe tuning in to watch the biggest sporting event on the planet. Today, Tariq Panja, global soccer correspondent for The New York Times, breaks down everything you need to know about this year’s tournament — the arrival of historic first-timers, like Curaçao, the aging legends like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who are making their final appearances, and the eye-watering ticket prices that are driving fans to financial extremes just to book a seat.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, this is the Sunday Daily. I'm Natalie Kittrow.
0:07.2	We're coming to you a day early because tomorrow, our colleagues at the interview are going to drop an episode with Scott Pelly from 60 Minutes. He was just fired from CBS this week after a blow-up with a program's new executive producer.
0:22.0	So that's tomorrow.
0:32.4	On today's show, we're going to talk about what's set to be the most watch sports event on the planet, the 2026 World Cup.
0:45.4	There's been no shortage of controversy surrounding this tournament, from exorbitant ticket prices to legal threats over those prices, to the geopolitical tensions hanging over it all.
0:54.7	But when the games begin, this coming week, the focus will inevitably turn to the competition, which is bigger than ever this year.
1:00.3	Billions of people will be watching from all over the globe, screaming at their televisions,
1:05.4	parading in the streets, painting their faces and beating drums in stadiums.
1:13.8	So to get us all ready for this World Cup, our global soccer correspondent Targ Panja tells us everything we need to know about the teams, the games, and the dramas that are about to captivate the world.
1:24.4	It's Saturday, June 6th.
1:30.5	Tariq, welcome to the Sunday Daily from across the pond.
1:33.9	It's wonderful to have you here.
1:35.3	It's wonderful to be with you.
1:36.8	So you have been covering soccer for a very long time.
1:41.0	How many World Cups have you been to, remind me?
1:43.9	I've been to sixth, and the next one
1:46.2	will be my seventh. That's so many. It sounds like a lot. You age with these tournaments as well.
1:51.2	I'm a very old man now. Yeah, were you a baby at your first one? Yeah, almost. I went as a teenager
1:57.6	with my brother. We had a fantastic summer in France in 1998.
2:02.2	Who were you rooting for?
2:03.8	I'm from England, so we were rooting for England. But it was just being at the World Cup
2:07.5	and around this international armada of fans was just fantastic.
	...

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