Ode to football: Can the FIFA World Cup bring peace to the world?

The FIFA World Cup begins on 11 June 2026, hosted across Canada, Mexico and the United States—the first time the tournament has been shared by three countries. It opens, however, in a world gripped by convulsions: war in the Middle East, war in Sudan, insecurity across the Sahel, and conflict and tension in many other regions. Even public health anxieties have not disappeared. At such a moment, any event that gathers humanity around a common spectacle carries a significance larger than entertainment. It reflects not only our vulnerabilities, but also our aspirations and our capacity for joy. The World Cup has never been insulated from politics or war. The 1934 tournament in Mussolini’s Italy was deployed as a showcase for fascist propaganda. The 1978 World Cup in Argentina unfolded under a military dictatorship that sought international legitimacy even as it faced accusations of grave human rights abuses. Two World Cups—those scheduled for 1942 and 1946—were cancelled altogether because of the Second World War. Football does not stand outside history. It plays within history, and sometimes helps to shape it. Recent tournaments have shown the same pattern. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the match between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran was widely seen as one of the most politically charged fixtures of the competition, shaped by decades of hostility between the two states. Yet the encounter also recalled an earlier and gentler moment: at the 1998 World Cup in France, Iranian players offered white roses to the Americans before kick-off, a small but memorable gesture that suggested football can, at least briefly, soften even the hardest political symbolism. Must it always be so? I think not. The World Cup, with its unmatched power to draw billions of viewers across continents, can also become a demonstration of global fraternity and camaraderie. FIFA’s own figures show that around five billion people engaged with the 2022 World Cup in one form or another, while the final alone reached close to 1.5 billion viewers. That scale matters. Football has occasionally served peace as well as passion. In Côte d’Ivoire, Didier Drogba’s appeal for peace after his country qualified for the 2006 World Cup became one of the most potent symbols of national reconciliation, helping to create public momentum for dialogue in a country divided by civil war. Football demands agility, imagination and skill. But it also stirs extraordinary emotion. Spectators often feel the game as intensely as the players themselves. That passion is one reason football can unite across class, language and nationality. Yet passion can also spill into excess. History offers painful reminders, from hooligan violence in parts of Europe and beyond to stadium disasters and riots triggered by contested decisions. The beauty of football therefore lies not only in its intensity, but in whether that intensity can be disciplined into celebration rather than hostility. Can football stir a passion for peace? It can—if those on the field and in the stands choose to let the game reveal what humanity shares. Even amid global tension, it would be powerful to see players display mutual respect and genuine warmth before and after matches. In the elegance of a dribble, the courage of a save, the precision of a pass and the shared euphoria of a goal, football reminds the world of something simple yet profound: human beings everywhere seek dignity, joy and belonging. Many political leaders will also be present in Canada, Mexico and the United States, especially as the tournament moves from the group stage into the knockout rounds and the final. Their presence should not be dismissed as merely ceremonial. Sport creates rare moments in which rivals watch the same event, applaud the same brilliance and occupy the same public space. The World Cup will not end wars on its own. But it can still offer a brief and visible lesson in coexistence—one that the wider world, and especially its leaders, would do well to notice. So let the World Cup begin. May the players dazzle us. And may their grace in defeat and magnanimity in victory offer the world, however briefly, a glimpse of joy, camaraderie and peaceful coexistence. Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah is an expert in African development and socio-economic transformation.