‘World Cup of chaos’: Can the most expensive sporting event deliver?

Vancouver: In June 1994, soccer’s bold attempt to break into the North American market seemed to have been derailed by O.J. Simpson and his white Ford Bronco.

While FIFA hoped all eyes would be on reigning champions Germany playing Bolivia in the opening match of the 1994 World Cup at Chicago’s Soldier Field, Americans instead were transfixed as the former footballer and actor turned suspected killer led police on a bizarre, two-hour, low-speed chase across Los Angeles.

Even without the O.J. pursuit, FIFA was up against it trying to penetrate a market dominated by American football, baseball, basketball and athletics. British-born football fan Roger Bennett, who moved to the US just before the tournament began in 94, said most Americans didn’t know the event was happening.

“I remember watching [the first night of the 1994 tournament], thinking, ‘Oh my god, the World Cup’s never going to make a dent on the American consciousness,’” said Bennett, the creator of Men in Blazers, the biggest independent soccer platform in the US, and author of We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event.

“But what happened was the second day of the tournament, Ireland played Italy in the meadowlands, and everyone in New Jersey turned up, half of them Italian American, like the cast of The Sopranos, half of them Irish American, looking like they’d just been ripped out the pages of Angela’s Ashes.

“That was the match that lit up the World Cup, giving Americans permission to connect to their complex hybrid identities, and scream and ... savour and make memories with the rest of the world.”

Thirty-two years on, the World Cup returns to America, which will co-host with Canada and Mexico, a much larger event and with a far more receptive audience. But high ticket prices, border restrictions and a host nation at war with a participating country have hijacked the pre-tournament headlines.

Mexico will host South Africa on Friday morning (AEST) to kick off a tournament that has expanded from 32 to 48 teams, allowing the likes of Jordan, Uzbekistan, Cape Verde and Curacao to compete for the first time. The increase has shaken up the tournament’s structure, size and timeline – the final match is on July 21 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. A total 104 games, up from 64 at the last World Cup, in 39 days.

That’s not the only notable change. This will be the first time a host country has been at war with a competing nation. The 2026 World Cup is also the most politicised in history and the most expensive – ticket prices for fans have in many ins