Spain's Victory Masks a Troubling Legacy of FIFA's Expanding Empire The 2026 World Cup final was a spectacle that few could have predicted would be marred by controversy.
The usual pomp and circumstance were amplified by a new era in global sports marketing, featuring celebrity cameos and big name performances that threatened to upstage the on field action.
Spain's 1 0 victory over Argentina marked its second World Cup title since 2010, but beneath this surface level triumph lies a complex web of factors driving FIFA's increasingly out of control expansion plans.