This is a football World Cup year, which is to say that nothing else matters. What other tournament, besides the Olympics, brings the world together like this one?
Yet it feels like this edition is trying its best to keep the world divided, with unprecedented ticket prices that cost more than the average monthly salaries of most participating countries, US travel bans that will mean fans from at least four nations that have qualified won’t be there to see their
This is a football World Cup year, which is to say that nothing else matters. What other tournament, besides the Olympics, brings the world together like this one?
Yet it feels like this edition is trying its best to keep the world divided, with unprecedented ticket prices that cost more than the average monthly salaries of most participating countries, US travel bans that will mean fans from at least four nations that have qualified won’t be there to see their teams play, and choking US visa regulations that may see many others left out too.
It isn’t exactly the kind of festival that fans look forward to. (There is some hope, since co-hosts Mexico and Canada are opening their doors wide in the spirit of things.) With all this in mind, here are some sporting wishes for the new year.
* Let the World Cup remain a celebration of a game of the people. FIFA has already taken note of the outrage over ticket pricing and reduced some fees, but much more needs to be done — including, vitally, the relaxation of visa norms for this event, in the US.
* Let there be a new winner! This is a nearly impossible wish, given the surfeit of talent on the teams of previous winners France, Spain, Argentina (led, for the last time, by Lionel Messi), Brazil and England. There aren’t many dark horses. But Portugal may finally spring a surprise (this is likely Cristiano Ronaldo’s final Cup too, and wouldn’t that be fitting?). Norway has a tremendous “golden age” squad in contention too, featuring the likes of Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard. Does either team have what it takes?
* It’s a fervent and perhaps futile wish, but may this be the year Indian football recovers. 2025 was the worst year in the history of the game in India, with the Indian Super League cancelled and clubs forced to suspend play. The national team lies in a shambles. The All India Football Federation is at the centre of it all. Can it turn this around: restore the top league, resurrect the lower ones, use funding better, and revive the game?
* 2025 was the year India’s women cricketers made history, winning their first ODI World Cup and making legends of players Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh, Shafali Verma, Shree Charani, Sneh Rana and others. It would be thrilling to see them also win the T20 World Cup, in June-July, in England. This is a team high on confidence and full of incredible talent — batters amassing record runs, wily spinners, genuine fast-bowlers, a big-hitting wicketkeeper. It would be great to see them knock another one out of the park, as they go about dismantling the great gender gap in Indian cricket.
* Vinesh Phogat is back! India’s legendary wrestler announced she was done after the heartbreak of the 2024 Paris Games, in which she was disqualified over weight just ahead of the final. After her shattered knee at Tokyo 2021, then the months-long protest in 2023 against former BJP Member of Parliament and Wrestling Federation chief Brij Bhushan Singh, it wasn’t surprising when she stepped away. But now she is back on the mat, in a year that holds a Commonwealth Games and an Asian Games. She has won gold at both in the past. It would be great to see Phogat on the podium again.
(Email Rudraneil Sengupta on rudraneil@ gmail.com. The views expressed are personal)
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