Are money and soft power draining World Cup football of its magic?

England’s Bobby Moore lifts the World Cup at Wembley in 1966, when pitch-side advertising – for brands including Brylcreem and Gordon’s Gin – first crept into the tournament. Photograph: AP

It’s almost all over. No more hydration breaks, no more obligatory pans of the TV cameras to Hollywood A-listers, or dread of the crushing inevitability of English disappointment. The Fifa World Cup 2026 is at an end, after another month of planet-straddling drama laced with significance and symbolism, both on and off the pitch.

Before the kick-off between Spain and Argentina on Sunday evening, the result is already clear: football’s greatest prize is more than a sporting event; it is a geopolitically charged economic juggernaut.