Journal article
Coordinating security, managing crowds, and marketing social control: examining key organizational challenges facing the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and USA
Soccer and society, pp.1-19
03/12/2026
DOI: 10.1080/14660970.2026.2640519
Abstract
The 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup will be the first to be co-hosted by three countries, an expanded tournament featuring 48 national teams. Its organization is likely to incur diverse logistical, technological, political, and diplomatic challenges. This paper examines key issues, including coordinating security, managing crowds, and facilitating social control at football mega-events. It outlines contexts of World Cup hosting specific to the event and the host nations of Canada, Mexico and USA, before reviewing literature on mega-event securitization. The theoretical underpinning and methods are subsequently articulated, drawing on international relations, crowd management, and sports marketing scholarship. This longitudinal research also examines interview data collected across previous World Cups. The article details key political and security dimensions. It explores how social media and marketing principles can shape public perceptions and outlines significant organizational challenges facing the 2026 World Cup as evident at the time of writing.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Coordinating security, managing crowds, and marketing social control: examining key organizational challenges facing the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and USA
- Creators
- Joel Rookwood - University College DublinThomas P. Oates - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Soccer and society, pp.1-19
- DOI
- 10.1080/14660970.2026.2640519
- ISSN
- 1466-0970
- eISSN
- 1743-9590
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 19
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 03/12/2026
- Academic Unit
- American Studies; School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Record Identifier
- 9985147184102771
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