Get ready for FIFA 2026: Davos leaders discuss the first-ever three-nation World Cup and its impact on sport, society, and global collaboration.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, FIFA President Gianni Infantino framed the 2026 FIFA World Cup as both a global business engine and a social catalyst. Hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the expanded 48-team tournament will feature 104 matches from 11 June to 19 July, with an expected 7 million stadium spectators and “around 6 billion people” watching worldwide. Infantino cited World Trade Organization estimates that the World Cup generates roughly $80 billion in economic impact and supports 825,000 full-time jobs, arguing the event proves the power of cross-border collaboration. Demand signals are unprecedented: FIFA received “over 500 million ticket requests” in the first sales phase, compared with 50 million tickets sold across nearly a century of World Cups.
Alessandro Del Piero described winning in 2006 as feeling “complete… as a footballer… and as a human being,” emphasizing sacrifice, family support, and emotional payoff. Arsène Wenger highlighted how national teams transform rivalry into shared identity and warned 2026 will be “more than ever a mental test,” requiring sustained concentration, recovery, and penalty readiness. Both stressed development: Wenger argued talent is unevenly discovered and linked elite performance to youth “education,” while Del Piero urged young players to embrace mistakes as growth. The shared objective: deliver “joy” while reinvesting revenues to broaden global football opportunity.
I can take your phone for you.
Yeah. Would you take some photos?
Yes.
No.
No, you need to be on stage. Okay.
Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Davos kickoff for FIFA World Cup 2026. My. Thank you. That was the reaction I was looking for. I'm Tanya Brier CNBC anchor. And I'm your host for this very special session at the World Economic Forum 2026, where we're talking all things football, the FIFA World Cup 2026, how FIFA takes football forward. And with that, to kick things off. And I think literally because I can see what he has with him, I'm delighted to now welcome for opening remarks. FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
Well, thank you. Thank you so much. Indeed. Welcome to everyone here in Davos. Welcome in particular to this meeting, which is the kick off meeting of the FIFA World Cup 2026. And this is, of course, the official ball of the FIFA World Cup. So we have to bring this ball on the 11th of June to Mexico City to kick off, a series of 104 matches to determine then on the 19th of July in New York, new Jersey, who will be the world champion. And we are here to speak, of course, as well about football. And, I'm asked to say a few opening remarks. I don't want to exaggerate, of course, because there are two incredible legends that, you will prefer to listen to rather than me. We have, a world champion, and we have an invincible. So, I mean, you cannot get better. And for all the others who are here, congratulations to everyone. Congratulations. Because you are participating to this year's best meeting at the World Economic Forum. Congratulations. It is special because, because we have a lot of magic in this meeting. We see this, trophy. This is, of course, the FIFA World Cup trophy is the winner's trophy. So this trophy will be handed out on the 19th of July to the captain of the team who will win the World Cup. I, will give it together with the president of the United States, the host country of the final. And, maybe for the little anecdote, and for all of you to know, nobody can touch this trophy, right? Only only those who win it or indeed the FIFA president, because he has to give it to the winner. So when I was, young, I mean much, much younger than now. I'm still young. So when I was younger than now, I figured out pretty quickly that my football skills wouldn't ever allow me to touch this trophy. As a winner of the World Cup, I had to find, therefore, another way to touch it, and I decided to become FIFA president so I could finally, as well have the privilege and the honor to to touch this magic magic trophy, which is the most iconic trophy in world sport. It is truly magic. And what I say to everyone in the world, because you have only one country which is world champion, but all the others. They can become world champions as well. With all the work that they are doing for children, boys and girls. And why? Because, let me come back to this. Because this is also magic. You would think this is, a ball, right? Well, that's not a ball. This is not a ball. This is actually, let me show you. Okay, well, you see, this is a magic instrument that transforms people in happy people. Again. Look how smiling you see, immediately he was serious. He gets give the ball around a little bit. To to the to the crowd. And you will see transforms people in happy people. This is what this strange instrument does. And, children, the children's face become happy and adults become children. And they start playing, passing the ball. Look, the smiles all over the room. This is fantastic. This is beautiful. And this is something that we are forgetting. Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, in these particular times we forget to be happy, to be joyful. Everyone has its own problems, issues in life and with football. We want to give to communities all over the world. FIFA has 211 countries which are members of FIFA. We want to give them a moment of joy and happiness. When a child kicks a ball, when an adult kicks a ball, they don't think about their issues and their problems in life. And we have always to, remember that, so you can pass it as well to the other side of the we want we want the whole room to be happier. We want everyone to be happy, not just one part. Football is, is the most democratic sport as well. And we unite the world. We are uniting the world with, with, the World Cup, of course. And this World Cup will be truly, special. This is the World Economic Forum. So I have to, of course, say as well a couple of economic things. So the economic impact, nobody cares about these things, but they are real. The economic impact of the World Cup is around 80 billion USD. And this is not FIFA saying this is World Trade Organization saying it. It's 825 full time jobs, permanent full time jobs created for salaries of over 20 billion. It is, a great impact, of course, in the three host countries United States, Canada and Mexico, three countries that were bidding together to get the World Cup in a time when there were discussions about building walls between, Mexico and the United States, while during this period those countries were working together in a joint bid to host the World Cup. This says it all about the magic of this ball and of this trophy. But the World Cup will be truly special as well, because it is the first one with 48 teams, 48 countries, a quarter of the world. FIFA is 211 countries, more than the UN who are part of FIFA. They will play 104 matches in 16 beautiful host cities in these three countries. And what is interesting is that the attention for these matches, is absolutely incredible in numbers. This means that we will have 7 million spectators in the stadiums, and we'll have around 6 billion people, 6 billion people all over the world watching the World Cup. This means 104 matches in one month for the Americans here in the room. This means like 104 Super Bowls in one month, because every match of the World Cup is like or even more than a Super Bowl, objectively by looking at the figures. But on top of that, you can be sure that, during a World Cup match, the world stands still. So I don't know. I give you an example. If Brazil plays, the whole of Brazil will be watching their match on TV. So there will be no crimes in Brazil during the 90 minutes. The police is very happy because they are watching the matches as well, actually, so they wouldn't even have time. But there is no crime committed. Don't and don't get. If you're in Brazil during the World Cup, try not to get sick because if you have to go to the hospital, it will be closed because everyone will be watching, the World Cup. So the world stands still because the World Cup and football has really an impact on the lives, on the moods of people. Like anything else, there is nothing anywhere close to, what football does. It changes the mood, not just of people, but of countries. I had heads of state in certain countries, who were telling me when in November, the qualifications finished. They were calling me and telling me, Johnny, thank God we qualified. So at least I have peace in my country and no civil wars. Or until, June, when the World Cup starts, because it unites countries and we want to unite the world. And we have seen that we need occasions to bring people together. We have seen it in Qatar in 2022. There were a lot of critics, of course, before the World Cup, the ball started rolling and the magic started. And it was a wonderful, wonderful, World Cup. We had virtually no incidents for the first time in history. Also, no Brit was arrested during a World Cup. Imagine. This is this is something really, really special. So it was a celebration. It was a party. And the next one in United States, Canada and Mexico will be exactly the same people they want occasions to meet, to come together, to spend time to celebrate. And this is what we try to give them. We try to give them this emotion today. That's what is missing. Of course, we live in a divided world and of course we support peace. We have seen earlier this morning, the Board of Peace with President Trump, being, signing this, this agreement, this declaration is full support from FIFA to President Trump to all the members of the Board of Peace, because we all have to support peace. We all have to unite, and we bring people together. Now for the World Cup, as I was saying, we have around 7 million tickets for sale. And I want to give you just one more number. And that one more number is the number of ticket requests we received. We started, four weeks ago for a four week for a one month, basically ticket sales phase. After that one month, our plan was, Well, those who asked for a ticket will get a ticket. If we receive more demands than tickets, we will have to make a draw to see who gets the tickets. Normally, you get, maybe in the past, it was like 3 million tickets. This time we have 7 million because we have bigger stadiums. Normally you get like seven, eight, nine, 10 million ticket requests. Mostly for the final, of course. So you have to make some draws for some games. This time we received over 500 million ticket requests. Half a billion ticket requests, half a billion ticket requests. I mean, this is something not. And the tickets are not cheap. The tickets are not cheap. We were hammered. I was hammered, I should say, because of the ticket prices, because they are so expensive. And the main critics were from Germany and, and England, of course. Now, number one ticket requests is us. Number two, Germany, number three, England, because everyone wants to come and to participate. And now in the US, it is perfectly legal to resell tickets on resale platforms. And this is there is a law for that. So we have to of course allow that. So you can be sure that this tickets for which we will have to make a draw, I mean every game will be sold out, because we have 500 million tickets, ticket requests, those tickets will probably be resold at even higher, prices. And this is incredible, but it shows really the impact that it has to give you another number to compare this. In 100 years of World Cup history, the first World Cup was in 1930. In 100, the almost 100 years of World Cup history, FIFA sold around 50 million tickets in total, 50,000,000 in 100 years. Now for this World Cup, in four weeks, we have the request for 1000 years of World Cups at once. This is unique. It's incredible. But I think it shows really that people have trust in the organization, probably trust in FIFA as well. Trust in Canada, Mexico, the United States. They want to travel. They want to go. They want to feel. They want to, be together. We received ticket requests from all our 211 countries from all over the world. Those persons who will purchase tickets, they have what we called what we agreed with the American administration, a FIFA pass so they can go to get their visa, in a, in a, in a fast track process, so to say. So all the things that we read around are absolutely not true when it comes to the, to the World Cup. Because America and when I say America, I speak about America, about the United States, about Canada and about Mexico will welcome the world next summer. And this is what, we are looking forward to. It will be the greatest celebration of humanity. It will be the greatest. Not just sports events, but the greatest show that, our planet has ever seen and probably will ever see. There will be 7 million ticket holders who come to North America. But there will be many, many more millions who come just to feel the vibe of the World Cup. And we hope that the stages and the stadiums will be prepared to let, the real actors of the World Cup, the players who will become legends when they stop playing, for them to, to shine. Our job is to prepare the stage, and their job is to shine on the stage. So with this in mind, I wish you all a great, great World Cup year. Happy World Cup year. Enjoy the best session ever at the World Economic Forum, at least for this year. Next year will make a better one even. And, thank you very much for your attention. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Johnny, for your incredibly inspiring words. And as we've heard, it's going to be the biggest year for football. The FIFA World Cup 2026 is going to be a monumental event, the greatest show on the planet. As you've just said for 39 days from the 11th of June to the 19th of July, billions around the world will be gripped by what happens in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Now, long after the final whistle of the FIFA World Cup trophy has been lifted by the champions, England, the champions. The champions. The tournament's impact will be felt globally as FIFA uses the revenues to grow the game. So with that, it's a great privilege for me and an honour to introduce to you two legends of the game who have unique insight into that very special FIFA World Cup effect. Please. Now, welcome to the stage, a FIFA World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, Alessandro Del Piero. And the legendary coach and now FIFA's chief of global football development, is Mr. Arsene Wenger. Alessandro Arsene, thank you so much for joining me here at the World Economic Forum. Alessandro, if I can start with you, you lifted this trophy in Berlin after an incredible final in 2006, no doubt leaving many Italians dreaming of doing the same. Can I ask you, first of all, what that feeling was like?
Okay, everybody, it's, it's quite not difficult, but, you know, we probably have more time to explain how big, lifting the trophy and winning the World Cup means for for me, for every football players, I guess. And for the fans as well. I mean, first of all is you feel complete. You feel complete as a, as a footballer, of course, and also as a human being. I'm saying both because, you know, I started I started playing, because I have passion for football. Okay. So my only focus was playing football, even though I have to say that I need to go to school and be a good student and blah, blah, blah, but but yeah, it's part of the journey. But football was my my stick in my mind and try to become a football player, but just enjoy. And then as soon as you grow up you understand of course different things and then you start dreaming to play the World Cup. So, and then you start to become professional, and every part of your life is based of what you have to do regarding to become a better football player. You need to grow also as a human being. So your life is going to be affected of that. Your friendship is going to be affected, especially in a young age. You need to make some some sort of sacrifice, you know, in order to, to achieve what you want to achieve. And, your family members, they need to be with you, supporting you. Sometimes when you lose a games, you. I'm very, you know, annoying person. So they need to support me. So that journey is a is a human being journey. Not only footballer journey and reaching the top, lifting the the most important iconic trophy that the football player can, can even achieve. It's, it's, you know, I say complete because I don't feel any other words more than that. And of course, there's joy. There's a you think about what happened in your career and, and, all the bad things that happened, all the good things that happened. But that is, is an explosion of of of everything inside you. And that's the beauty of that.
Alessandro, you were talking about having the passion for football as a young boy. But who inspired you when you were watching the FIFA World Cups as you were growing up?
Well, I, I was looking we, we didn't have at that time so many media, you know, especially videos. So we have a few things that happened during the week. And but when I grew up, of course, when I was eight, Italy became a world champion in 1982. So that was actually my first World Cup, watching my first World Cup with family members. You know, in Italy we have a carry on together families, friends, you know, 50, 60 people in the same room watching the game. And I didn't quite understand what's going on. I felt that it was important. Then as soon as we reach, you know, quarterfinals, semifinals, I understand even more and more. And then we reached the final and we won. I say we went on the streets, we celebrate with the flags. And my my mom helped me to make a homemade flags with a green, white and of course, red color. And I went, on the bush. I'm living outside, you know, in the countryside. So I went to the booth to, to to find the right bamboo in order to, to, to put the flags on. So that's the kind of thing that I was growing up and that's. Yeah, that's probably my first memory of the World Cup was amazing. One. Then the next one and the following one and, quite different. But but the first one we won. I mean, what better start than that?
Alessandro, thank you so much. And awesome. When you hear what Alessandro has to say, it's clear that the football World Cup is not just a football tournament.
Yeah, it's much more.
Yeah.
You just explained that. I think he played at Juventus when he played at Juventus. All the people from Inter Milan or AC Milan hated him. But suddenly when you play for your country, everybody is behind you and loves you and pushes for you. So it's a the unusual thing in that, you know, and, so I would say you suddenly became I liked the way he explained it. It's quite simple. He grew up loving the game and Sundays at World Stage and plays football just because he loved the game and was talented. But suddenly you represent the pride of your country. But as well you had the stress because you have as well the fear to lose and to disappoint your country and to potentially humiliate your country, you know, so it is a you need that strength to manage that sudden responsibility to carry the pride of a whole country on your shoulders. And usually in the national teams, you need players who can absorb that pressure and can carry it. And most of the time it is the big players who represent their generation well.
Arsen, what's interesting 2026? It will be the first time that there'll be 48 teams. How key is it, do you think, for the young players to see the world's best players in action, to inspire them to develop their own game, or maybe even just to start to play?
Well? Our president explained that 100 years ago, you know, you had 13 teams playing in the first World Cup, and they chose for me, it shows football development. I'm now in football development and I realize how big football has become in the world. When you speak about the number of tickets people want, you cannot imagine. I travel all over the world, everywhere. Football has become the most important thing people talk about. And so to me, for a long time, it was a confidential competition between Europe and South America. We had to open it to the world, you know, and I think it's a minimum we could do is to open to more African countries, more Asian countries, because we want football to be strong everywhere. And if you project yourself in 100 years, you would think it's everybody should be in a position to potentially win the World Cup. And, that's why I believe this was a very important step to move from a 32 to 48. And, I'm keen to see what will happen. But, the World Cup for me, I love it always in the first two weeks because everybody, the whole world is there, proud to represent their country. But as well, there's a feeling that we are all together. So many countries are together. They meet each other in the street. It's really a little bit more celebration than competition in the first part of the competition. And that, is absolutely amazing to see.
Austin, what do you think it is about football that unites countries, unites people and cuts through everything?
Well, overall, the the fact that everybody loves to win in life. I have not met many people who love to lose and to win together. Makes the countries proud of, of being together. Because when I told you, you represent the values of your country and the strength of your country, the determination of your country, and as well, the unity of your country, because you play together. And I must say, if we talk about it later, this World Cup will be more than ever a mental test for the teams are.
Why do you say that?
Because the like Johnny explained that you have 104 games and as well, when you come out of a group stage, we have four knockout games before you go to the final. That means the stamina, the mental stamina you need to win four times in a knockout and stay one more week together and then win the final will be a real mental test more than everybody can imagine, because this is really tough, you know? And on that front, I'm convinced that you will have two characteristics, in this World Cup is how the coaches, the staff around the team will prepare the team mentally to stay together for such a long time and motivated. But as well, on the technical front, I imagine that you cannot win four knockout games without going through a penalty shootout. So at least to once certainly will be confronted with that. So that will be the mental factor as well. Technically will be very important.
As one of the best coaches in history. What would your advice be?
My advice? First of all, I've never managed the national team, so I'm not the big specialist of that. But, it is to have a good communication to to maybe, I feel at the top, top level competition. It's always very important to turn high level of concentration with a relaxation. Yeah. And, to find that balance in, in a long period, it will be very important for the coaches. For example, bring the families in at some stage, get them out again and return well, mix well the high period of concentration with a good period of relaxation.
Alessandro, what helped you do you think, in preparation for such pressurised games?
Well, I mean. I explain a lot of things that, you know, happened not only as a coach side but also as a footballer side. Concentration, of course, but the journey in order to arrive to the game and to prepare a World Cup, it's, it's a long one. I, I really love. I remember one of the first things that you told us, you know, the first time that he got in charge was two years before. So you prepared the qualification. So we say, this is gonna where our World Cup's start. So. And you feel that growing, you know, during the qualification during that year and then you reach finally the, the thing. So you, you need to be able to set up everything in that way. Everybody, everyone has different than each other. You know, someone needs family support. Someone needs to be by themselves. Some someone need to listen to rock music, some other, you know, lyrics. Who, important thing is, what? Our sensei. That is one of the most important thing for me is the word balance. Because we are playing a team sport. So you need to balance your effort with the effort of your teammates. You need to put that effort, in. In the same way you need to, to balance the time that you dedicate to yourself. You cannot be so much selfish. But to be selfish is good because you pretend more from yourself. So balance your your ego is very important. And we could go on and on. Yes. But then you, you are in a team sport. So the balance that happened in the team sports, in terms of chemistry, in terms of health, in terms of, you know, be good in penalties, what what you need you need to be strong when you have to defense and understand that it is a moment that the other one has better than you. And, you need to take responsibility and step up when, when some moment during the game or during during the preparation as well. You know, it happens so many things on the locker room and on the training ground that need to be settled down in a proper way. And sometimes you need only to let them go and see. We call fate. It's not a real fate at the end. It's a it's the way that we settle things before and, and and then they dive in where you want. And of course, you need some magic. You need. You need to trust. You need to have hope. You need to think about things. You need to pray if you want to pray. There's many ways. I mean, I give you a small example of how. And this we connect with football as well. You know, one of my last experience was in India. I played for three months, and the team was creating in very particular way. So we have Indians guys, half of the team, and then we have foreign guys. We have, on that team. We have, 12 different country, guys, I mean, country guys is not the right thing. I mean, Italians, Serbian and all the parts of the world. So 12 different with five different religions, religions. So before the game, the first game I was, you know, I saw a lot of games. I played 700 games, I won the World Cup, I saw everything. And then at some point before the game, five minutes before, you know, I saw these guys, you know, everybody were concentrating in their own with their god, with their rituals, with their culture. And that was I stopped for a minute and I say, wow, that's beautiful. That's how things sports and specific football, how they put people together. And we were in the same team and then we end up outside to play the game to win together. So that balance it can happen, you know, in different ways and in different vibes. So it's a for me it's like this.
And Alessandro, I'm sure that you hope Italy will be at the World Cup. What can you tell us about the benefits for some of the younger players for, for their development to be part of such a tournament? Because it is, as you say, such a special experience.
Exactly. Special experience. And you need to go with, with open eyes and and ready to listen and to with a humble, humble and understand what's going on. Because every experience is, is so important. And we also and I'm dealing also with the youngest you know, probably coach here can say the same. You know, now we have become more and more worried about mistakes and how I look in front of the people with social media, with other stuff. I need to be looking good, okay? I need to be happy. I need to be there. You know, that's true, I do. I did it sometimes, most of the time. So I did it as well. You know, you have that mentality every everything brought you there. Yes. But as a young player you need to understand that making mistakes is also good. And you are able and you are. You need to make mistakes in order to grow up. You need to lose game in order to to win games. Sometimes when hit you the most is the one that makes you grow. And and you learn much more from from defeats than, than from wins. And that's, that's a part of the answer that I want to give you is that one, you know, especially for youngest one, because they're going to face something huge that they cannot imagine, like I did, you know. So it's, the experience with with the fans, with the travels, with the organization. It's a super high level and demanding. So that's why it's very important to have a good coach, a good organization and good people. Good people are ready to listen and to and to to learn. That's my advice.
Thank you. Alessandra. Orson, how do players develop and benefit from playing on the world stage, but not only in relation to the World Cup, but also to FIFA's entire tournament history? Do you think?
Well, you need role models. Yes. You know, and, for young players, it's very important to have role models. But the coach has a part to play by identifying. When I saw a young player, I looked. How does he look like? You know, what are his qualities? Is he looking like Del Piero? Then I would tell him, Look at Del Piero. He's a player. You have similar qualities, and the advantage of a role model is they continue to practice when they're out of the training session because they they play alone and they look at the players who have similar qualities and they develop by watching them. So when you watch a World Cup, of course they look at the players. I would like to look like him. And so the advice you could sometimes give to a player, no that's not you look rather at him. He can help you to become, to develop your qualities. And I liked what Alessandro said. You know, in competitive sport, the fear is the mother of all evil, and especially at the young stage, because football has become so important at the young coaches, I always tell them, get the young players, get them rid of the fear to try because the try the mistake is educational. You learn from your mistake and you have to develop the players by encouraging them to make decisions. Because at the end of the day, education is to educate the judgment of the player, and he gets that only if he is can take initiatives. Because we know today that the top level player is somebody who can process multiple information at a high speed, but as well somebody who has a great memory. If I ask him, do you remember the goal you scored 20 years ago against Milan? He will tell you, yes, I did this and that and that. And so he.
Look at his smile.
He knows.
He knows me too much specific.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah. Which one? He said.
So. as well.
So you know the memory. Why have a memory? Because they learn from the situation they faced. And I think I lost the ball in this situation. When I meet this situation again they give the right answer. That's why it's so important to educate the judgment of a young players.
Austin, can I also ask you, you've put in place the FIFA talent development scheme that mentioned before by Gianni, which is a massive investment in the future of football and as one of the programs that benefits FIFA, allowing the vast majority of revenue made by the FIFA World Cup back in to the world game. As the man leading this extraordinary and exciting project. Please can you tell us more about it?
Well, I'm quite happy that you asked that question. First of all, because I'm in the middle of a huge investment that FIFA has made, and FIFA for me, before I came to FIFA, I didn't know, what are they doing with the money? Where does the money go? But I know today that the money goes. FIFA looks always guilty to make money, but all the money goes to the federations to develop their infrastructures. And because I travel a lot today, you should see how much every federation has developed because of the funds that they get available from from FIFA. You know, I work with a guy. When he worked, he went to the federations, collect money to be part of FIFA. Today, FIFA distributes a lot of money and part of it goes to education. Why did we do that? Well, I analyzed football in the world. I realized that most of the talent in the world don't get the chance to play. Yeah. And that the second thing is that the countries where the 20 best rated countries in world football are the countries have a better level of education. It was a huge correlation.
With the quality of education and the ranking at senior level. And I just come back because I see Patrice Motsepe here, who suffered a little bit in the final. But, I just come back from the African Nations Cup. The final was Morocco against Senegal, but there are two of the countries who work the best at youth level, and they started that a few years ago. The coincidence, which was not a coincidence, that these two teams were in a final, because we know that the level of education at youth level is the most important to be successful at senior level. Yes.
Just one final question before I invite Mr. Infantino to come back up on stage for a final message. I just want to ask you first, Alessandro, what are you most looking forward to seeing at the FIFA World Cup 2026?
Joy. Joy for sure. If I have to pick a word in a specific moment that we are living now, with a lot of problems that happen everywhere about wars, about, You know, bad news that we are here every day more and more, what what football can bring is definitely joy. You know, we are, as we said before, under the same rules, the field is the same one for everybody. And, and the moment that Arsene explained very well the first two weeks of the World Cup is the most beautiful moment that we can live during the World Cup, because everybody is happy to be there. When you are a young kid, you dream to play the World Cup. So when you reach that that dream playing the World Cup, you are super happy. Then competition starts and other things start as well. But that moment is it's a pure joy and we need that joy, the love for the game, the love to be together and the joy to be together. And on the mix of culture and, and and and the beauty of compare yourself with the other ones and, you know, sometimes win, sometimes lose, maybe better win for many reasons. But but that's journey is have to be like this and create great memories. You know, we play in three different countries. So we embrace really with this message, FIFA embrace the world with 40 countries on the World Cup for the first time. So it's it's bigger and bigger and that's you know, we a word joy. That's the one of the meaning of this World Cup for sure.
Thank you Alessandro and arson. What are you most looking forward to?
Well, the quality of the games and, with an unknown quantity, because we have moved from 32 to 48, I feel always it's very important for the teams to find a good balance from the start of a competition and, to have a harmony, like he talked about. You know, harmony is to put different pieces together and that the vibes coming out look harmonious, that everybody finds meets his needs in the team and the teams who can do that early, have a good chance to win the competition. And the second thing for me is we are known company countries. We have not been at the World Cup until now because we have a few to see how well they can compete against the top teams. And that is of course, I'm very curious about it. And we just come out this year. We have created the under 17 World Cup every year with 48 teams, and we have seen that the the smaller countries, there was very little difference. So I'm quite confident that there can be some surprises.
Well, we'll look forward to those surprises. I'm sure all of us, if I can just invite President Infantino to come back up on stage to stand up with all of us. I'd like everyone to a round of applause. President Infantino, Alessandro Del Piero, Arsene Wenger and all together. Thank you so much to everybody. Oh oh my. Oh, oh he can touch it. He's allowed to. Yes. Thank you.
And thank you very much to all of you for joining us. Thank you very much. Thank you.