As Argentina take on Spain in their seventh World Cup final, it's a fine moment to recall a curious design controversy from the tournament's past. It's a tale that highlights the kind of rich storytelling that we lose now that FIFA handles World Cup branding directly rather than entrusting it to the host nations.
The 2026 World Cup logo introduced a clean global brand system free from national colours or cultural symbols. That makes this year's identity safer and more uniform, but arguably a rather sterile antithesis of the best world cup logos of the past.
