TODAY sees this summer’s World Cup kick off in Mexico City with co-hosts Mexico taking on South Africa.
The World Cup gets under way this evening as co-hosts Mexico begin the tournament against South Africa at Mexico City Stadium.
Thursday’s opener will be the first of 104 matches taking place across June and July in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Scotland’s World Cup preparations also continue on Thursday, with a media conference set to take place.
Ahead of kick-off, an opening ceremony will take place.
What time does the 2026 World Cup opening ceremony start?
Coverage starts from 6.15pm UK time, and the cermoney will begin at around 6.30pm with media broadcasting live from Estadio Banorte.
This is 1.30pm local time in Mexico City.
Who is performing at the 2026 World Cup opening ceremony?
Shakira and Burna Boy are headlining with their performance of ‘Dai Dai’, the official World Cup 2026 song, for the first time live.
Mexican band Mana will perform, alongside Alejandro Fernandez and Colombian J Balvin, as well as Belinda, Danny Ocean, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, and Tyla.
There will be two other ceremonies for the remaining host nations when Canada and the US play their first group matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Paraguay the following day.
On the eve of the opening game in Mexico City, Infantino, who also gave a strident defence of ticket prices, said: “It was unfortunate what happened with the referee from Somalia.
“Again, we don’t control everything. We tried to discuss, we speak. Sometimes it’s good as well just to chill, relax.
“We try to solve everything, (but) screaming and shouting, that’s the opposite of finding a solution.
“We try always to find solutions (but) we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments, police forces. We are an organisation with the means we have to make as much as possible.”
The BBC pushed him on his comment about “chilling”, with Infantino adding: “In 2035 I think the Women’s World Cup will be in (the) UK.
“Would you find it normal that Fifa would dictate to the British Government who to let in the country and who not to let in the country? I don’t know, maybe you find it normal.
“Our world is a very aggressive world and security goes above everything. You need to respect the decisions.
“When is say ‘chill’, I don’t mean ‘chill and do nothing’, I mean to trust us.
“We always try to make the situation as positive as possible and find solutions. Sometimes we manage, sometimes we do not.”
Infantino clearly expected questions around the price of tickets to come up and spoke at length about it in his opening remarks.
He defended the entry price of 60 US dollars (£45) – which he said covered 130,000 tickets out of around 6.5 million on sale – saying that compared favourably with American sports at the play-off phase.
He added: “If we were like everyone else in football is now, selling our TV rights on pay TV like everyone else, then billions of people wouldn’t have access.
“We will generate four times more revenues and we will give the tickets probably for free. They will still enter the black market and the secondary market and be sold for thousands of dollars. We have to strike a balance.
“It is my statutory responsibility to generate the income which allows Fifa to invest in all of these (211 member) countries.”
He also said he was “relaxed” about legal challenges to Fifa's approach to pricing, saying the organisation had sought extensive legal advice before going to market.
Fifa has faced negative headlines around Iran this week, with some of its federation officials denied US visas and the federation claiming Fifa had revoked an allocation of tickets given to it for its matches, which start with a game against New Zealand in Los Angeles on Monday.
Infantino hailed Fifa's work in getting Iran to play in the finals, which seemed unlikely in the extreme after the US and Israel began bombing Iran in February and Iran responded by attacking US military bases in the Middle East.
“I don’t know who else would have been able to ensure (their participation) in these circumstances,” he said.
He recalled a visit to see Iran play in Turkey in March, and added: “I promised them they would come and if I had to go with a bus to Tehran, I would do that.”
