11 June to 19 July 2026 · United States, Canada, Mexico
World Cup 2026 through a United Nations lens
The largest World Cup in history is also a global stage for issues the United Nations works on every day: extreme heat, refugee inclusion, human rights, sport integrity and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Follow the tournament through the issue that speaks to you most. Each pathway draws on the content already present on this page and leads to a more detailed section.
SDG 13
Heat changes the match. 🌡️
UN Climate Change has warned that extreme heat could shape the tournament: on the pitch, in the stands, around stadiums and in host cities.
Major sporting events involve governments, football associations, sponsors, broadcasters and service providers, all connected to human-rights responsibilities.
The 2026 World Cup takes place in the United States, Canada and Mexico in June and July, the hottest months of the year in North America. Ahead of kick-off, UN Climate Change warned that extreme heat, fuelled by worsening climate change, could become part of the tournament’s story.
26/104matches expected at or above the WBGT heat-risk threshold of 26 °C, according to UN Climate Change.
5 could exceed WBGT 28 °C21 others at 26 °C or above78 other matches
Each dot represents one of the 104 matches. The dot layout is illustrative; the figures come from the UN Climate Change note published at the opening of the tournament in June 2026.
Matches at WBGT 26 °C or above
1994
21
2026
26
Matches above the WBGT 28 °C danger threshold
1994
3
2026
5
The last North American World Cup was USA 94. Since then, climate change has more than doubled the likelihood of extreme heat. Source: UN Climate Change, June 2026.
Hydration breaks
Mandatory three-minute hydration breaks midway through each half, regardless of weather conditions.
Recovery time
The match schedule provides at least three rest days between games.
Climate-controlled benches
Staff and substitutes have access to climate-controlled benches during outdoor matches.
Beyond the stadium
UN Climate Change stresses that the danger may be greater outside: fan zones, queues, transport routes, parking areas and open-air celebrations.
A day showing 40 °C on the thermometer can produce a WBGT of only 26 °C in a shaded, ventilated stadium, or a dangerously high value on an exposed and humid pitch. WBGT reflects the human body’s ability to cool itself during intense effort.
Yes. A peer-reviewed study on the 2025 Club World Cup, played in the United States, analysed 57 matches and recorded 1,070 player observations, documenting the effects of extreme heat on elite footballers in North American summer conditions.
25'
SDG 13 · CCNUCC · Sports for Climate Action
The tournament footprint
The largest World Cup in history is also the one that requires the most travel. Forty-eight teams and millions of supporters will move between sixteen host cities spread across a continent, with distances that place aviation at the heart of the tournament’s climate impact. UN Climate Change stresses that adaptation is not enough: reducing pollution from fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas, is what will protect football’s future.
~70%
The carbon footprint of following matches
Research on European professional football (The Shift Project / French Football Federation, 2025) showed that aviation accounts for about 70% of the combined emissions of clubs and supporters. A round-trip flight for a single World Cup match is estimated to generate 0.8 to 2.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per European supporter.
-50%emissions reduction by 2030, the commitment made by FIFA under UNFCCC’s Sports for Climate Action framework.
2040target year set by FIFA to reach net-zero emissions, announced at the COP26 UN Climate Conference.
280+sports organizations have joined the United Nations Sports for Climate Action framework, aligning sport with the Paris Agreement.
These commitments are tracked under UNFCCC’s Sports for Climate Action framework. Their delivery depends on measures taken across the football economy, including travel.
Your match day, your footprint
Most supporters will follow the tournament far from the stadiums. How you travel to a screening, fan zone or friend’s home also matters. Choose a mode of travel to compare.
Near-zero emissions. The European Environment Agency considers walking and cycling the cleanest mobility choices.
Rail is the most efficient form of motorised passenger transport in the EU, with greenhouse gas emissions per kilometre that are only a fraction of those from cars or aircraft.
Cars are among the highest-emitting modes per passenger-kilometre, especially when driving alone. Sharing the ride on match day reduces the footprint per person.
Flying is the highest-emitting way to follow a match: air travel for a single World Cup match can generate 0.8 to 2.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per European supporter.
The bar length is illustrative. It reflects the European Environment Agency’s ranking of passenger transport modes by greenhouse gas emissions per passenger-kilometre, not exact values.
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, UNUNHCR unveiled the Gamechanging Team: a symbolic team of eleven real professionals whose lives have been shaped by forced displacement. Led by Alphonso Davies, this team carries a message: when people find safety, welcome and opportunity, they can change the game.
Member of the Gamechanging XI. Full profile on unhcr.org.
The Gamechanging XI album: tap a card (or a player on the pitch) to flip it and read the story.
Gamechanging XI01/11
Alphonso Davies
Captain🇨🇦CAN
Alphonso Davies01/11
Born in a refugee camp in Ghana after his family fled the war in Liberia, then resettled in Canada. He is now captain of the national team and a UNUNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
His family’s story is connected to displacement from Sierra Leone to Germany. One of the world’s leading defenders and an engaged voice for inclusion in football.
Born in Angola during the civil war, before his family found refuge in France. Developed in French football, he now plays at the highest European level and represents France.
He fled Nigeria for the United Kingdom as a child. Football became his refuge and then his future, taking him to the Premier League and Nigeria’s national team.
Born in a refugee camp in Guinea before his family was welcomed in Australia. Sport gave him freedom and belonging, and he now wears the Australian shirt.
He grew up in a refugee camp in Tanzania before moving to Texas as a teenager. Within a few years, he went from local pitches to professional football and the United States national team.
Born in a refugee camp in Tanzania, then resettled in Australia with his family. One of the youngest members of the team, his journey shows what becomes possible when a child finds safety and a ball.
11players brought together in a symbolic team by UNUNHCR
11journeys to read card by card, from family exile to resettlement
25 MayWorld Football Day, a UN entry point linking football, peace and development
A symbolic team, real stories. This is not a competition team. UNUNHCR selected eleven professional footballers whose lives have been shaped by displacement: born in refugee camps, resettled as children, or raised in exile after their families fled conflict. The eleven players are presented above, card by card: Alphonso Davies, Asmir Begović, Antonio Rüdiger, Eduardo Camavinga, Victor Moses, Mohamed Touré, Ali Al-Hamadi, Bernard Kamungo, Awer Mabil, Nestory Irankunda and Ermedin Demirović.
A World Cup involves governments, national football associations, sponsors, broadcasters and service providers. In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, an international framework to guide the responsibilities of all actors involved in major sporting events.
Protect
States
Governments have a duty to protect people from human-rights abuses committed by third parties, including businesses. Host governments are responsible for the conditions in which a tournament takes place.
Respect
Organizations and businesses
Football associations, sponsors, broadcasters and service providers have a responsibility to respect human rights in their operations and supply chains.
Remedy
Affected people and communities
People whose rights are harmed must have access to effective remedy, including grievance mechanisms and real access to compensation or reparation.
Women in football
In July 2025, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for the Guiding Principles framework to be applied to gender equality in sport.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were developed by Professor John Ruggie and unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011.
Football is a multibillion-dollar global industry, making it a target for corruption and economic crime. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime works with governments and sports bodies to preserve the fairness of the game, from preventing match-fixing to transparent public procurement, under the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
$1.7Twagered each year on illicit betting markets controlled by organized crime, according to UNODC estimates.
60+anti-corruption projects developed under the memorandum of understanding between FIFA and UNODC.
400+football integrity officers and public officials trained through the Global Integrity Programme.
64matches monitored by the World Cup Integrity Task Force in Qatar in 2022, with no threats reported.
In 2025, UNODC presented an updated anti-corruption plan covering the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, based on the G20 High-Level Principles, to protect both events against match-fixing.
A global tournament draws attention far beyond the pitch. For the United Nations, that visibility becomes useful when it serves verifiable goals: peace, sustainable development, inclusion, equality and public mobilization.
UN
Resolution A/RES/77/27 presents sport as an enabler of sustainable development and calls for more coherent action by the United Nations system around sport, development and peace.
Here, soft power is not presented as a national or commercial image: it is treated as a capacity for public mobilization, supported by United Nations texts and programmes, Football for the Goals, ActNow and UN agencies.
United Nations · Goodwill Ambassadors
Football as a force for good
World-renowned footballers lend their voices to United Nations agencies. Each card links to an official source and connects football with a specific cause: children’s rights, refugee protection, education, the fight against racism or food security.
UNICEF
Lamine Yamal
As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he highlights every child’s right to play and support for children living through conflict, natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies.
A UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education for All, he supports equal opportunities through education and places his commitment within the fight against discrimination.
All information in this section is linked to an official page from the relevant United Nations agency.
80'
UEFA · 2026 World Cup qualification
Europe at the World Cup
Europe sends sixteen teams to the 2026 World Cup, its largest representation to date. UEFA and thirteen of these sixteen national associations have joined the United Nations Football for the Goals initiative, committing to bring the Global Goals to life on and off the pitch.
ENGEngland
SCOScotland
FRAFrance
GERGermany
ESPSpain
PORPortugal
NEDNetherlands
BELBelgium
NORNorway
SWESweden
CROCroatia
SUISwitzerland
AUTAustria
BIHBosnia andHerzegovina
TURTürkiye
CZECzechia
90'
UN DESA Policy Brief No. 189
Football as a lever for inclusion
The UN DESA Policy Brief shows how Football for the Goals turns football’s global reach into concrete action for the Sustainable Development Goals. The strongest initiatives connect social inclusion, education, well-being and local partnerships.
128Football for the Goals members contributed to the 2024 annual reporting, out of 303 members.
SDG 10Reduced inequalities appears as one of the most cited areas, alongside SDGs 17 and 4.
456 670+young people were reached by programmes reported by FFTG members.
90,2 %of responding members mention the SDGs in their communications or CSR/DEI reports.
Include people left behind
Football can help reduce the barriers that limit participation by persons with disabilities, refugees, women, girls and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Build useful partnerships
The most effective projects bring together clubs, federations, schools, local authorities, civil society organizations and international partners.
Measure for lasting impact
The report also highlights the need for more consistent data, better impact tracking and sustained investment in inclusive sport programmes.
In brief
When well designed, football is not only a spectacle: it is a mobilization tool that can support education, health, equality, social cohesion and partnerships for the Global Goals.
Football for the Goals is the United Nations initiative connecting the global football community with the Sustainable Development Goals. During the 2026 World Cup, the Football for the Goals Cup invites supporters, clubs and associations to take measurable actions through the AWorld ActNow platform.
In concrete terms, the pathway proposes a simple activation method: prepare a sourced UN message and translation-ready visuals from 25 May, use matches as relay moments with ActNow and Football for the Goals, then publish after the final a short recap of content, partners, outreach and actions that can be reused.
Starting point
25 May 2026 · World Football Day
World Football Day provides an official entry point to launch the campaign with UN sources, present Football for the Goals and prepare content to publish during the tournament.
Key takeaway: the goal is not only to communicate during matches. The most effective approach is to prepare a complete sequence: announce, activate, then measure what was actually done.
Six action zones
Refugees and inclusion
Know a story
Discover a player’s displacement story and share a verified UNUNHCR resource with your network.
Four quick questions before the final whistle. Every answer can be found somewhere on this page.
How many of the 104 matches are expected at or above the WBGT 26 °C heat-risk threshold?
26 out of 104, about one match in four, according to UN Climate Change.
Which factors does WBGT, the heat index used for the tournament, combine?
WBGT reflects the body’s ability to cool itself during intense effort, making it more relevant than the thermometer alone.
Who is the captain of UNUNHCR’s Gamechanging Team?
Alphonso Davies, born in a refugee camp in Ghana, is now a UNUNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
Under the United Nations Sports for Climate Action framework, in which year has FIFA committed to reach net zero?
Net zero by 2040, with a 50% reduction by 2030, a commitment made at the COP26 UN Climate Conference.
Join the Football for the Goals Cup
The tournament attracts attention. The Global Goals give that attention meaning. Join the Football for the Goals Cup, participate through the AWorld app and turn match day into concrete action until 25 July 2026.
The editorial content is based on official United Nations sources, institutional sources and, for sports diplomacy, a dedicated academic source. Sporting facts are limited to public information from UEFA and FIFA.
UN Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Note on extreme heat and the 2026 World Cup, June 2026, including remarks by Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
United Nations framework aligning sport with the Paris Agreement. FIFA committed to reduce its emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2040 at COP26.
Bipartisan letter from 53 lawmakers asking the US State Department to implement safeguards for major international sporting events, including the 2026 World Cup.
ENGEngland
