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The 2026 FIFA World Cup marks a historic moment in the global sporting landscape as the first tournament to be jointly hosted by three nations: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. This unprecedented structure reflects the increasing globalization of soccer, its growing economic and political significance, and its evolving cultural and technological dimensions. Houston was selected to host some of the games of the 2026 World Cup, making the city an important site and Rice University a key player for innovative and critical scholarly, professional, and community engagement with this timely and relevant topic.
The World at Play: The Beautiful Game in 2026” is a platform for interdisciplinary engagement, critically analyzing the tournament’s broader implications through academic, professional, and industry lenses of history, economics, psychology, cultural studies, sports management, data science, and sports medicine. The event will bring together scholars, practitioners, players, and policymakers to explore soccer’s potential as a site of both structural inequity and transformative repair (examining issues of labor rights, gender equity, post-colonial legacies, and environmental sustainability), and how soccer functions as a transnational force, influencing economic trends, political relations, social dynamics, and technological advancements.