Two years before his death, Diego Maradona was asked by the Argentine press how he viewed the 2026 World Cup, which was to be hosted by three countries on the North American continent.

The 1986 World Cup champion in Mexico had no doubt that soccer would be transformed to benefit commercial interests and the American market.

“The Americans will have it played in four 25-minute halves, with commercial breaks in between,” Diego Armando Maradona had stated in a 2018 interview with “TeleSur,” which has recently gone viral again on social media.

Diego had warned about this years earlier. Today, the debate over changes to soccer’s format brings back to the table a discussion that Maradona anticipated when he denounced the influence of commercial interests on the game.

Don’t miss this new episode of our… pic.twitter.com/GTok6ADm7L

Advertisement

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) June 30, 2026

In another statement, when asked by reporters about the tournament in North America, Maradona had said: “I don’t like it; there’s no passion left… Canadians may be good at skiing, and that’s about it. The Americans will want four halves just for the commercials, and the Mexicans keep getting World Cups they don’t deserve.”

Having been… an opponent of FIFA since the days when Sepp Blatter was at its helm, Maradona believed that the commercialization of soccer had been in the works for years. Although a similar plan had failed at the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., today, according to the narrative attributed to his statements at the time, it seems to be taking shape through new forms of the tournament and its expansion to 48 teams.