GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

The World Cup: Looking Ahead From 2018

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Tolga Ozyurtcu
Board of Contributors

Jul 23, 2018 | 10:00 GMT

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (L) smiles at FIFA President Gianni Infantino (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. As part of the closing ceremony, Putin passed a soccer ball to al-Thani, whose country will hold the next tournament in 2022, in a symbolic gesture.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (L) smiles at FIFA President Gianni Infantino (C) and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. As part of the closing ceremony, Putin passed a soccer ball to al-Thani, whose country will hold the next tournament in 2022, in a symbolic gesture.

(YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Although questions of national identity dominated this year's World Cup in Russia, other geopolitical storylines are already starting to emerge around the next two tournaments in 2022 and 2026.
  • Qatar will have a hard time living up to the success of Russia's tournament, in large part because the games it hosts will kick off in late November, rather than in the summer months.
  • After the tournaments in Russia and in Qatar, the World Cup hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico will probably give FIFA a welcome breather from sociopolitical controversy.

It's been a week since France won this year's World Cup in a gripping championship match against Croatia. Now that the dust has settled, it's an opportune moment to reflect on the tournament past and to look ahead to future editions. For some, the end of the tournament is likely a relief, bringing to a close the associated monthlong frenzy in the media, both traditional and social. For my fellow soccer fanatics, the World Cup hangover can be difficult to shake: We realize it's time to get on with our lives, but would just a little bit more be so bad? Out of respect to the former group, I've attempted to keep my postmortem brief, with some final hair-of-the-dog thoughts on the geopolitical undercurrents of the recent World Cup and some anticipatory musings on the themes emerging from the next two tournaments in Qatar and in North America....

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