
World Cup 2026: The Biggest Tournament Football Has Ever Seen
Three nations. Sixteen host cities. Forty-eight teams. As the World Cup prepares to enter a new era, the scale of the tournament is unlike anything football has witnessed before.
Carefully selected writing covering football, cricket, rugby, golf, US sports and the business and culture surrounding modern sport.

Three nations. Sixteen host cities. Forty-eight teams. As the World Cup prepares to enter a new era, the scale of the tournament is unlike anything football has witnessed before.

Once upon a time, football clubs belonged to communities. Today, they are increasingly owned by billionaires, investment funds and sovereign wealth. The question facing modern sport is no longer simply who wins, but who owns the game itself.

From public courts in California to the pinnacle of world tennis, Venus and Serena Williams changed not only their sport but the way the world viewed female athletes. Their story is one of talent, resilience, family and a legacy that continues long after their greatest victories.

A generation ago, the idea of 60,000 British fans filling a stadium to watch American football seemed unlikely. Today, NFL games in London sell out regularly, merchandise is commonplace and millions of Britons follow the sport. How did America's biggest league win over a nation obsessed with football?

In an age of instant highlights, franchise leagues and shrinking attention spans, cricket's oldest format continues to endure. Nearly 150 years after the first recognised Test match, it remains one of sport's greatest examinations of character.

Winning football matches is difficult. Winning league titles is something completely different.

For much of the last century, women were told sport was not for them. Today, they are filling stadiums, winning world titles and inspiring a new generation. The journey has been long, and it is still being written.

Few sporting competitions reveal leadership quite as clearly as the Six Nations. Across seven weeks of pressure, expectation and national pride, character is tested as much as talent.

In no other sport is an athlete left so alone with their thoughts. As Sunday afternoon unfolds and the leaderboard tightens, golf becomes less a test of technique and more a test of character.

American sport has mastered the art of making every game feel like an occasion. The challenge for British sport is not to copy it, but to understand what it does so well.

In an era of franchise tournaments, shortened attention spans and cricket designed increasingly for fast entertainment, there is something remarkable about the fact that The Ashes still feels different.

Long before football became a multi-billion-pound industry, before social media, satellite television and global superstars, there was Pelé. For millions around the world, he was not simply the game's first icon. He was football itself.