The Football World Cup Begins
Beautiful days ahead for football fans
Florin Orban, 10.06.2026, 13:45
The most important sporting event of 2026 kicks off on Thursday. The Football World Cup, which will run until July 19 in North America, begins in Mexico. The first opening ceremony is scheduled at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and the first match, Mexico – South Africa, takes place at 7 p.m. GMT. There will also be opening ceremonies in the United States and Canada, the other countries hosting the games of this World Cup.
The North American competition is the largest final tournament in football history. It brings together 48 teams from 6 continents. Unfortunately, Romania will be missing again. The Romanian national team has not been present at a World Cup since the 1998 edition hosted by France, when the national team coached by Anghel Iordănescu reached the round of 16.
Two players from Romanian clubs will be present at this year’s World Cup: Jovo Lukić, the striker and top scorer for Universitatea Cluj, called up to the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, and João Paulo Fernandes, a midfielder playing for FCSB, included in the Cape Verde national team. Interestingly, their club teams receive significant amounts of money from FIFA for the presence of the two players in the final tournament. The international forum has established a record fund of USD 355 million specifically to compensate clubs that send players to national teams. For the duration of the final tournament in North America, FIFA pays clubs a guaranteed minimum of USD 5,000 per day for each player, until the team leaves the competition. Since a team stays in the tournament for a minimum of 14 days, clubs have secured a starting threshold of at least $70,000 for the group stage alone.
At the World Cup, Romania will be represented by 3 referees: central referee István Kovács and assistants Mihai Marica and Ferenc Tunyogi. For Kovács, this is his second consecutive participation in a world championship, after being part of the refereeing corps at the previous edition, in Qatar, where he was the fourth official in several matches. (AMP)
