World Cup 2026 special issue ft. Danyel Reiche & Tamir Bar-On

So I've got some kind of vested interest in these, but can you tell us a bit about the special issue and what is in there?

Sure.

Okay.

So I think I'll tackle that question.

Thank you very much, Francesco.

So our idea was to, in fact, have a group of scholars opine about the 2026 World Cup.

and we collected scholars from different disciplines.

We have political scientists, we have economists, we have people that are doing anthropological studies, and we separated the special issue into five different themes.

Those themes, and here Daniel can jump in as well, include security themes, they include the economics of the World Cup.

They include soft power and football.

They include the World Cup and fandom.

And they include...

the North American culture of the World Cup, because for the first time, this World Cup is going to be hosted by three North American countries, Canada, the United States of America and Mexico.

And so those are the basic themes.

And I also, like you Francesco, I did a piece in there on FIFA World Cup security, in which we tried to look at three different ways in which we can conceptualize FIFA World Cup security.

Of course, Daniel also has a piece in there, and that's more related to the United States and North American football.

But, yeah, I think I'll stop there.

And I think we should add that Francesco has an article in it titled The Greatest Theater on Earth, World Cups as Spaces to Represent Political Causes.

I should have really gone for a shorter title.

Could you remind us the title of the special edition? Is it out already?

So the title is the North American World Cup 2026.

And the publisher, so the journal's name is Soccer and Society.

It's published by Taylor and Francis.

And officially that's published in June and July.

But the publisher has already released the articles online.