Professor Sally Everett says the tournament exposes deeper questions about who global sporting events are really designed for.
The FIFA World Cup risks becoming a tournament designed around "high-value visitors" rather than ordinary football fans, according to a tourism expert from King's Business School.
Professor Sally Everett warned that the soaring costs associated with the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico reveal deeper questions about who global sporting events are really designed for.
Professor Everett, author of Decolonising Tourism Education, argued that modern mega-events increasingly prioritise visitors with the economic means to absorb fluctuating prices, hospitality packages and cross-country travel costs.
Speaking on the latest episode of Office Hours, she said:
"There is something problematic here in the idea of value. You are actually shifting from fans of a World Cup, to high value visitors that the destination is after."
Recent reports have found that England supporters could spend close to £5,000 following the group stage, while even short journeys to stadiums have seen significant price inflation during the tournament period.
But Professor Everett argued that the issue extends beyond expensive tickets or travel, reflecting wider assumptions about what tourism is meant to achieve and who benefits from it:
"It is about how the system is designed for most mega events. This is not your average fan."
Drawing on her research into previous mega-events including the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and London, Professor Everett questioned whether the economic benefits promised by host cities genuinely reach local communities:
"We still have this default about revenue and viewership and how we create international prestige. But actually, often the revenue is diverted away from health, away from education."
She added that host destinations often struggle to create meaningful long-term local benefit once the event itself has ended:
"I'd love to see greater engagement with host communities that actually do gain."
Professor Everett said tourism education risks reproducing the same assumptions that shape global mega-events: that success is measured through revenue, scale and visibility, rather than access, inclusion and local benefit:
"My concern is that we are perpetuating the same models, the same structures, the same systems in the way that we are teaching our students, our leaders, our future managers."
Professor Everett said the FIFA World Cup 2026 should be used as a case study for future tourism leaders, arguing that educators have a responsibility to help students question who benefits from global events and who is left out:
"I am disappointed that I'm seeing a World Cup that flies in the face of everything that I have researched in terms of the mega events. I think there is an opportunity to highlight the winners and losers, particularly to our students."
She added that future organisers should move beyond revenue and prestige as the main measures of success:
"If we can redefine the metrics that we use to actually look at social impact, accessibility, community welfare, and wellbeing, then at least we're moving towards something that is a little bit more successful."
Listen to Who Is the World Cup Really For? wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.
